B6. WW I: The Versailles Conference and Treaty and their Legacies

We will explore the causes and the course of WWI. Then we will look at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, particularly asking how and why it deviated from many nations’ expectations going into the Conference. We will look closely at the deeply flawed Versailles Treaty that the Paris Conference produced. We will then review the consequences of this treaty, intended and otherwise, and its “offspring,” the League of Nations. Recommended Reading: The First World War by John Keegan; Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan

John Ferris, M.D. is a retired rheumatologist at UMass with a master’s degree in military history. He has a particular interest in WW I & II, the inter-war years, and New England military history.