The Black Book Woodrow Wilson's Secret Plan for Peace

Prior to the end of World War I, President Wilson gathered a group of expert geographers, historians, economists, and political scientists The Inquiry to make plans for the coming peace conference. The Inquiry produced a secret document, the Black Book, containing maps and plans for the territorial settlements to be negotiated. This secret plan was brought daily by the President into negotiations and much of it came to fruition on the world map. This work takes an in depth look at the Black Book and the lasting legacy of American negotiators at the Paris Peace Conference. Many of the successes, and failures, from these peace settlements trace directly back to this remarkable, and heretofore, almost unstudied plan.

Wesley J. Reisser is adjunct professor of geography at the George Washington University.