The Book Prize Index

The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire

Susan Pedersen

"At the end of the First World War, the Paris Peace Conference saw a battle over the future of empire. The victorious allied powers wanted to annex the Ottoman territories and German colonies they had occupied; Woodrow Wilson and a groundswell of anti-imperialist activism stood in their way. France, Belgium, Japan and the British dominions reluctantly agreed to an Anglo-American proposal to hold and administer those allied conquests under 'mandate' from the new League of Nations. In the end, fourteen mandated territories were set up across the Middle East, Africa and the Pacific. Against all odds, these disparate and far-flung territories became the site and the vehicle of global transformation.

HistoryWorld History · medium confidenceWorld History81 signalsLlm Classifier: World History -> World HistoryKeyword Classifier: American History -> American HistoryTopic Classifier: Presidency & Executive Power -> Politics & GovernmentPresidency & Executive PowerConstitutional HistoryHuman Rights & International Law

Award History

1 wins · 2 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Cundill History PrizeMajor2015WinnerSecondary source
Lionel Gelber Prize: International AffairsMajor2016ShortlistSecondary source
View all award history (2)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Woodrow Wilson72%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    70 / 100 academic

    Academic

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 62%.