The mild reservationists and the League of Nations controversy in the Senate

Abstract

"What if the United States Senate had approved the Versailles Treaty and permitted the country to join the League of Nations that was being formed after the First World War? Would the course of history have been so altered that the Second World War would not have occurred?" Presuming at least the possibility that the outcome was important, historians are often asked how and why the United States failed to join the League. The inquiry has been so enduring that the story of the League's rejection has entered folklore and become almost mythological, with President Woodrow Wilson and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge the larger-than-life protagonists. Thus, whenever a controversial treaty goes before the Senate, wary proponents look for lessons in the history of the conflict over the League. These things being so - that the subject is important and that it is in continuing use - historians are obliged to give a full and accurate account and evaluation of the Senate battle of 1919 and 1920, and of the circumstances surrounding it. The enterprise is ongoing and unending, and this book is a part of it.