One more, then I need to get some sleep. Congressman Ron Paul is worth getting to know. He's not that popular around here because of his lack of enthusiasm for Bush's reprise of Wilsonian utopianism, but he is a hard core constitutionalist and libertarian whose critique of the welfare/warfare state is at least 1/2 welcome here (I think - - perhaps incorrectly).
http://www.house.gov/paul/
http://www.ronpaul.org/
On the consequences of WWI, facilitated by Wilson's "tilt" towards the Triple Entente, this book is a good read:
A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East (Paperback)
by David Fromkin
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805068848/ref=ed_oe_p/002-4753117-6221614?%5Fencoding=UTF8
The Evil Empires, August 3, 2001
Reviewer: "bibliomane01" (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
This is one of my all-time favourite historical works, and I've read a lot of them. David Fromkin tells the story of how the colonial re-adjustments made by England and France during World War I in anticipation of the demise of the Ottoman Empire were ultimately responsible for the continuing mess that is the modern Middle East. It is a story that has been told many times, but seldom with such eloquence and rarely with such a sure eye for the telling detail. Mr. Fromkin has the gift of explication and the ability to really see the big picture. From the fateful voyage of the German warships Goeben and Breslau to the violent death of Enver Pasha in the wilds of Central Asia, and from the fictions of TE Lawrence to the cynical accomodations of Sykes and Picot, the reader is conducted expertly through an incredible but factual story whose ending has yet to be determined. As he shows in other books such as "In the Time of the Americans," Fromkin is a stern critic of the old colonial powers, and some readers may find his account of French and British politics and policies to be a little one-sided, but what really good book isn't? An amazing work of history - six stars!