Narrates the course of the Paris Peace Conference following World War I to assess its consequences as measured against contemporary expectations as well in hindsight. Clemenceau (‘bury me standing, facing Germany’), Lloyd George, and Wilson as well as Balfour and Curzon are key figures. The study reviews the proceedings regarding European, Asian, and Middle Eastern regions by country, focusing heavily on the redrawing of borders. Self-determination, mixed nationalism newly awakened by the collapse of the Habsburg, Russian, and Ottoman empires, proved explosive; however, the course of twenty years, not simply the treaty, led to 1939.