![]() ![]() Part of the thrill of reading MacMillan’s new book, The War That Ended Peace, is to absorb oneself in the calm before the storm. ![]() It’s April in Paris, the chestnut trees are in full bloom, the air is crisp, the scars of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 had ever so slowly begun to heal, and the Exposition’s general atmosphere of kitschy cheeriness filled everyone with a sense of security and optimism that Europe would enjoy peace and prosperity for years to come. Each country had its own buildings and gardens designed specifically to show off the best of what it had to offer. This bold exercise in cultural diplomacy had the feel of what Epcot’s World Showcase Pavilion has to us now. In the early part of Margaret MacMillan’s account of the prelude to World War I, the historian transports us to Paris in 1900 during the early days of the city’s world fair, the Exposition Universelle. ![]()
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