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Victors Divided: America and the Allies in Germany, 1918–1923 by Keith L. Nelson reexamines the United States’ first military occupation of Germany and the ways it shaped both American foreign policy and the fragile European peace after World War I. Moving beyond the familiar debates over the League of Nations or the rise of economic imperialism, Nelson argues that American leaders were centrally concerned with restoring “normal” liberal order in Europe. That project was hampered by conflicting aims among the Allies, domestic political setbacks at home, and Americans’ own reluctance to recognize how deeply the war had destabilized the old order.

At the heart of the story is the American occupation of the Rhineland, established almost by accident and prolonged as much to restrain France as to discipline Germany. Though Americans initially regarded the deployment as an “unnecessary necessity,” the presence of U.S. troops soon proved indispensable in moderating the occupation, balancing French ambitions, and stabilizing a precarious regional peace. Nelson situates this episode within broader efforts—from Wilson’s abortive security guarantees to the Harding administration’s Washington Conference and the Dawes Plan—that sought, with mixed success, to re-integrate Germany into the international community. By restoring attention to this neglected occupation, Victors Divided reveals how Americans groped toward international responsibility in the years after 1918 and how their ambivalence both limited and defined their influence on Europe’s postwar settlement.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1975.