Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World

The delegates to the peace conference after World War I "tried to impose a rational order on an irrational world.

The glories of the past compensated for the imperfections of the present.

In the fluid world of 1919, it was possible to dream of great change, or have nightmares about the collapse of order.

Wilson agreed reluctantly to their attempts: “I don’t much like to make a compromise with people who aren’t reasonable. They will always believe that, by persisting in their claims, they will be able to obtain more.

There are only two perfectly useless things in the world,” he quipped. “One is an appendix and the other is Poincaré!