Hall of Mirrors

by David Sinclair

An important history lesson everyone should be aware of.

Genres: History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[David Carniglia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not going to finish this. The author's claim that the diplomatic history surrounding the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 isn't very accessible because of the many secret conversations merely obscures the actual legacy of those crucial events. He provides no documentation, no footnotes, and very little history, per se.

What we have instead is in effect historical fiction. It's true that secret diplomacy doesn't always become exactly and precisely revealed; nevertheless many authors, from Harold Nicholson over a hundred years ago, have discovered a wealth of memoirs, official histories, overheard conversations, reactions and reports from first or second-hand sources for detailed and fascinating histories of Versailles, one of the most notable historical topics since the Congress of Vienna.

His claim that relevant sources lead to a "dry" telling of history might be true in the hands of a less-than-average writer, but Sinclair is not a poor writer at all. Nonetheless, he sets about a near-impossible task: to put words in the mouths of the German High Command, the Kaiser, King George, Lloyd George, and a host of greater or lesser dignitaries.

The result is the very dryness the author claims he seeks to avoid. Every person ends up having the same personality and manner of expressing themselves. I should say every character, because the effect feels inauthentic, impersonal, and ahistorical.

I suppose I'm old-fashioned and expect footnotes to guide me along like so many nightlights illuminating my nightly journey in reading. I do think, though, that the informed reader rightly expects the author's critique of his subject's participants--decisions made or not made, and a general take on the overall situation. That is, I'm looking for the views of the commanders and men at the fronts, the public back home; plus the results of the fighting, etc., and an analysis of the leadership--heads of state, prime ministers, heads of the military establishments--what they expected of Versailles and the Great War's ending, what they wanted for their country, and how they meant to get it.

There's little of that here, except in his general comments before we get to Versailles itself. How can re-created conversations be analyzed? In effect, by leaving the research on the back burner, the author has also tuned out the ability to comment as an historian. He's more or less giving us a general retelling of events, a textbook summary.

I realize I backed away from the book; judging by other reviews, though, I doubt that it got any more interesting. That's the issue: it fails to engage the reader beyond a superficial level.

[Rupert Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something I have not seen before - a sort of docudrama of a book. To be honest it read something like a television script. Huge amounts of dialogue and not much text. I was hoping to learn rather more about the way the Treaty was put together than I actually did. A light and entertaining read that I think would provide quite a lot of historical background, but it did not have much hard detail. One criticism is that it featured only a dozen people - almost as if the tv script was for a production that could not afford more than 12 actors. So the lesser players - King of Serbia or the Turks for instance - did not get mentioned at all. On the whole a good read, but not all that informative as a history book.

[Johan Gheeraert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boek waarin gepoogd wordt de complexe situatie waarin het Duitse Keizerrijk in het najaar van 1918 de oorlog beëindigde en de daarop volgende onderhandelingen die tot het Verdrag ven Versailles leidden in gefingeerde discussies van betrokkenen samen te vatten. Is een methode die voor een breed publiek misschien een en ander toegankelijk maakt, maar is vrijwel zeker soms zwaar naast de waarheid. Zo wordt de Duitse generaal Ludendorff geportretteerd als één van de Duitse beslissingnemers, niet als de militaire dictator die in 1918 vrijwel alleen zeer cruciale beslissingen nam.

Bespreking door www.westgids.be

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a bad introduction to the crazy process that provided a pause between WWI and WWII (that now I am beginning to see as one long discontinuous war).

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Treaty of Versailles ending World War I was negotiated in France's Hall of Mirrors. This is the story of those negotiations between Britain, France, and the United States.