cover image Armistice 1918

Armistice 1918

Bullitt Lowry. Kent State University Press, $35 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-87338-553-4

Beginning on October 3, 1918, with Germany's initial armistice inquiry to President Woodrow Wilson, Lowry's exhaustive study follows the murky negotiations based on Wilson's Fourteen Points that led to the Compiegne Armistice signing on November 11, 1918. This is dense history, but Lowry, who teaches history at the University of North Texas, makes much of his account of the backbiting, threats, jealousy and ignorance, that arose from both national and personal interests read like a novel. The Supreme War Council, whose key members included Georges Clemenceau, Lloyd George, Marshall Ferdinand Foch and President Wilson, was wary not only of the Germans' intentions (they seemed ""prepared to admit lack of success in the war, but not defeat"" as Lowry puts it) but also of one another--as each country differed in its goals (i.e., total vs. partial disarmament, freedom of the seas, evacuation and reparations, leniency vs. vengeance). While this isn't the first study of its kind, Lowry's is definitive rather than derivative, with over 600 footnotes, an index and selective bibliography. Though the book is occasionally weighed down by its own density, Armistice 1918 will be invaluable to scholars and historians while others will revel in its trenchant insight into the minds and machinations of men and the inevitable consequences. Photos and maps not seen by PW. (Dec.)