Following the end of the First World War, a new world order emerged from the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. It was an order riddled with contradictions and problems that were only finally resolved after the Second World War.

Beyond the Great War brings together a group of both well-established and younger historians who share a rejection of the dominant view of the peace process that ended the First World War. The book expands beyond the traditional focus on diplomatic and high political history to question the assumption that the Paris Peace Treaties were the progenitors of a new world order. Extending the ongoing debate about the success of the Treaty of Versailles and surrounding events, this collection approaches the heritage of the Great War through a variety of lenses: gender, race, the high politics of diplomacy, the peace movement, provision for veterans, international science, socialism, and the way the war ended. Collectively, contributors argue that the treaties were at best a mitigated success, and that the "brave new world" of 1919 cannot be separated from the Great War that preceded it.

Carl Bouchard is a professor of Modern History and International Relations at the Université de Montréal.

Carl Bouchard's profile page

Norman Ingram is a professor of Modern French History at Concordia University.

Norman Ingram's profile page

“Beyond the Great War rectifies the history of the end of the war by going beyond traditional actors and periodisations, and by emphasising the struggles and imperfections in what is known as the new international order.”

<em>English Historical Review</em>

“What Beyond the Great War demonstrates is how that complexity was reflected in divergent proposals for the creation of a better world. Pacifist and nonpacifist mothers in France held widely differing opinions about how to achieve peace, socialists were equally divided, and the Ligue des droits de l’homme, an institution central to French republicanism, could not agree whether the Treaty of Versailles should be revised. With chapters ranging from the ambiguous nature of Alsace-Lorraine’s return to France to Mary Church Terrell’s struggles to advance racial and gender equality, the book represents a worthy attempt to broaden understanding of the legacy of the conflict.”

<em>Journal of Modern History</em>