Paris 1919

Six Months That Changed the World

De: Margaret MacMillan

Narrado por: Suzanne Toren

Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize, renowned historian Margaret MacMillan's best-selling Paris 1919 is the story of six remarkable months that changed the world. At the close of WWI, between January and July of 1919, delegates from around the world converged on Paris under the auspices of peace. New countries were created, old empires were dissolved, and for six months, Paris was the center of the world. Bringing to vivid life the individuals who participated in the great Peace Conference, including Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill, Lawrence of Arabia, and Ho Chi Minh, Paris 1919 is a landmark work of narrative history.©2002 Margaret MacMillan

Reseñas de la Crítica

"This book is a treasure." (Booklist)
"MacMillan's lucid prose brings her participants to colorful and quotable life, and the grand sweep of her narrative encompasses all the continents the peacemakers vainly carved up." (Publishers Weekly)

Lots and Lots of Chapters

Too much detail . . . everything you'd like to know about the Treaty of Versailles embedded within page after page of details and sidelights, dragging on and on, making those six months referred to in the title seem a long unnecessary voyage of tedium. I jumped ship after Chapter 18. Tell MacMillan to hire an editor and come back later.

Best book I've read in the past 2 or 3 years

Where does Paris 1919 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

#1

What did you like best about this story?

The author did a really good job of organizing the story and information.

What does Suzanne Toren bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She was able to convey incredulity, sarcasm etc with her intonation.

Any additional comments?

The narrator did an astounding job. Really really superb

A boring subject made vivid.

Probably can't get a clearer description of what went on with this free-for-all involving so many countries.

Shaping the "Modern World"

If you are at all interested in how the current world crises began then this is a "no miss" book. I was truly amazed to learn that the dissolution of the Ottoman empire really set the tone and spawned so many of these issues that are now endangering our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren. Could not stop listening

Comprehensive account

Excellent account. Excellent performance. Only problem was I could not refer to maps while listening in my car.

Best WW1 book duo!

Make sure to read the war that ended peace first! Both books are fantastic and go so well together.

Very interestimg

This tells of the complexity of the Treaty of Versailles. It shows how many things were missed and misunderstood.

Surprisingly great

Great , narrator.. Even better story. Highly recommended. A most read for WW1 buffs. RIP Loyd George .

accessible window on today's world

MacMillian uses the Paris Peace Conference as a window on not only the outcomes of WWI but also on its causes and course. As the intro states the "flawed decisons with terrible consequences" of that gathering still shape our contemporary world. Want to understand the G20? Start here.

Some reviewers have disliked the book's detail - but it was exactly the picturesque (and sometimes humourous) detail of a politico's personality or the power behind his throne that kept me listening past the dryer explanation of the redrawing of borders.

I liked Toren's narration of this nonfiction better than her voice for historical fiction. Although MacMillian isn't academic in tone, neither is she chatty or breezy, so Toren helps by lightening up the tone.

If you're tempted to try a Margaret MacMillian work to see why she sells so much history to average readers, this would be a good place to start. It's a listenable blend of social and political history.

Review of the reader only.

Others have written detailed reviews of this book that are useful and interesting, so I'll keep mine short, and address only the reader. I found the reader quite annoying, and had to leave off listening to this book and listen to something else for a while from time to time to give myself a break.
First, the positives; the reader has a very pleasant voice, clear diction (with perhaps some sort of mild northeastern United States accent? I can't quite place it, though it's clearly not British), and an obvious knowledge of her material. She speaks French as well as English, and speaks it well (almost unheard of in an audible book containing many French locations and characters!) and seems, as far as I can tell, to do at least reasonably well with the many other languages that are involved in this epic work.
What is my problem with her? She sounds annoyed, irritated, and sarcastically judgmental almost all the time, throughout the entire 18+ hours. Goodness knows I can see why, practically everyone in the book is deeply annoying almost all the time, but it makes her very difficult to listen to. If you are listening to the book and some background noise blocks out the actual sense, so all you can hear is the tone of voice, you will notice that the reader sounds like she's chewing someone out in a coldly angry way. I found this hard to take, so be sure to listen to the audio sample, to see if it strikes you this way, and how bothersome it might be for you.
I would not listen to anything else read by her, in spite of her many good qualities.