“the vastness of the work still called for”

The words of President Woodrow Wilson on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for 1919

Caption: President Barack Obama, 2009, with a detail of President Woodrow Wilson from Sir William Orpen’s painting: The Signing of the peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles 28 June 1919.

Exactly 90 years ago today (10th December 2009) as President Barack Obama receives the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009, President Woodrow Wilson would have received his Nobel Peace Prize for 1919 on 10 December, following the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty 6 months earlier. Yet unusually Wilson’s award was delayed and finally presented 10 December 1920 in a double ceremony with that year’s winner. The first presentation of the Prize following the end of the First World War.

In his acceptance speech, in an observation that mirrors today’s presentation, President Wilson said that he was moved “by a very poignant humility before the vastness of the work still called for by this cause".

One of Wilson’s lasting achievements following the Paris Peace Treaties, was his work in the formation of the League of Nations on 10 January 1920 – but only as a springboard to the United Nations after the Second World War. The League was to fail just before the outbreak of that war.

As part of their ambitious series Makers of the Modern World (32 books describing the personalities, events and legacy of the Paris Peace Treaties for each the 32 countries that took part in the war), Haus Publishing has recently published:

Woodrow Wilson: United States by Brian Morton.

On 10 January 2010, the 90 anniversary of the birth of The League of Nations, they will publish:

The League of Nations by Ruth Henig

Ruth Henig CBE is an Honorary Fellow at Lancaster University where she lectured in Modern History. She was made a Life Peer in 2004, becoming Baroness Henig of Lancaster. Her books include League of Nations (ed) (1973), Versailles and After 1919–33 (1984), The Origins of the Second World War (1985), The Origins of the First World War (1989), Weimar Republic (1998), and, as co-author, Modern Europe 1870–1945 (1997).

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