Anyone who thinks that one can choose historians at random and learn anything useful is just stupid. This article must have been written to serve the stupid among us.

You mean Versailles did not impose draconian reparations on Germany !?

You mean France did not re-occupy Rhineland !?

You mean Versailles did not take away Prussia from Germany including Danzig and cut off Germany's sea route !?"

--Three-fifths of the alleged "draconian" reparations did not in fact exist except in the form of bonds which were never issued and were never intended to be issued. Post-WW1 Allied political leaders needed to convince their electorates that Germany was getting squeezed so hard that the pips squeaked. Hence the reason for the bogus bonds. Of course, post WW1 German politicians were anxious to blame everything on reparations and to convince the country to wallow in aggrieved victim status, look for scapegoats like the Jews, etc.. So they weren't about to call anyone's attention to the fact that Germany's reparations debt was less than half what the newspaper headlines claimed.

--Okaay, what's next? The French evacuated the Rhineland in 1930, five years ahead of the schedule originally laid down in the Versailles Treaty. They never re-occupied it, relying instead on that formidable defensive barrier--at least when viewed from the front--the Maginot Line.

--Versailles deprived Germany of a primarily ethnic Polish region between East Prussia and Pomerania, the area later made famous as the "Polish Corridor". Germany did not lose Prussia. Nor did Germany lose any access to the sea.

German reparation were not as large as popular culture make them out to be. What happened was Germany first used loans from private and government central banks to pay them. The Stock Market and the Great Depression caused a credit crisis. Governments demanded increase payments and banks only made loans at very high interest rates. Germany responded with the only way it could, print money. Hyperinflation settled in and well everybody knows the rest. Why does this myth continue. Probably because AMERICAN and BRITISH historians keep wanting to blame the French and praise the British.

A sad aside, though Germany had a history of antisemitism, it got really bad in the 30's when the populace turned against banks which was perceived to be controlled by Jews (I believe only the Rothchildes owned a major bank).

People currently opposed to same sex marriage hold up this ideal of "traditional" marriage as something that has always been and should continue as it has always been. Marriage has changed drastically not just from what it was 500 years ago or 100 years ago but from what it was 50 years ago or even 25 years ago.

Isn't it ironic how exhumedatbirth and mr_dufus_2u manage to prove the point of the book and the review.

MacMillan is a renowned historian. She wrote a well received book on the events that surrounded the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. She has done the primary sources research. To claim that she hasn't done the research is patently absurd.

One thing I would like to add. When German industries recovered, foreign governments who were paid reparations would spend them on German capital goods (like steel) which served as a stimulus to the German economy (like how US farm "aid" works).

It’s hard not to be suspect of history after having lived through Bush II. When the current news is nothing but lies and distortions, how can we be so confident in what happened 10, 20, 50, or 500 years ago? Russia’s aggression in Georgia is a prime example – the entire world reported on what really happened – that Georgia invaded a small province, killing dozens of civilians, and then Putin used the Russian forces to go in and kick the Georgians out. Yet the United States media reported the exact opposite – that Russia was the aggressor. We are being lied to on a daily basis. Entire books have been written on the lies and distortion of the Iraq invasion under Bush II, yet these lies and distortions went straight from the Pentagon, to the White House, to the White House Press Corps, to the New York Times, where it become a "historical record" - a historical record of lies.

I must take issue with the author that the Scottish Highlanders had no distinct culure. Yes, they did. Too bad the Scots do not have a law that would imprison “Highlander Deniers.”

History as an academic discipline is very poorly understood by the layman. We are raised to think it is a series of names and dates, and that is fine, as far as it goes. But after leaving elementary school, we should be getting a more sophisticated understanding of what history is. Just as in science classes, where we are taught – beginning in High School – of the process of science (hypothesis, experiment, conclusion), we should be taught the process of history – primary sources, archeological evidence, interpretations, etc.

History is the most politically useful of all humanitarian disciplines, and that is why it so abused. National and ethnic identities are based on specific historical narratives. When you analyze and critique those narratives, your are directly affecting people’s sense of how they see themselves and their place in the world.

This can also be seen on an individual level. I am always amused at the little biographies of CEOs in the Wall Street Journal. Every CEO has a biographical narrative, and they are painstakingly crafted. Never have I read a biographical narrative of a CEO along the lines of "and then I spent about five years drinking and not knowing what to do with my life." That would read as "I spent five years exploring the business world, focusing on variety of experience." Which one is "correct" history, and which one is "wrong?" Just as we write our own personal historical narratives, and that is how we see ourselves, so too do a people write their own narrative, in order to see themselves.

Which brings us to the Holocaust. It is one of the most politically charged, and abused, historical narratives in my lifetime. To say that historical inquiry into the Holocaust is criminal is to say that the Holocaust is a religion, and we are living in a theocracy. Over the years, many so-called “truths” about the Holocaust have had to have been revised, and have been debunked, all the while with screams of “anti-Semitism,” and legal wrangling. It is the abuse of history on the highest order, and it is a worldwide Zionist agenda to control that narrative, and this agenda is active in the United States today. We see the lies coming out of Israel every day. We see the cover-ups and the lies and the war crimes on a daily basis coming from Israel, yet we are told to believe that the Holocaust happened exactly as we have been told, no questions asked, no mistakes made, no subtleties missed, nothing more to learn, case closed.

The Holocaust gives Israel, and many Jews, their identity, and their sense of themselves in this world, and has been used countless times as a justification for the creation of the State of Israel. It also pays well – see Norman Finkelstein’s “The Holocaust Industry” and “Beyond Chutzpah” for the abuse of history as a means to bully, intimidate, and shake down people and nations.

If you don’t have the courage or stomach for Finkelstein just yet, a good book is “History in Three Keys: the Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth,” about the Boxer Rebellion in China. It is a great introduction into how history can be different things to different people.