This study critically examines Woodrow Wilson's acceptance of the principle of national self-determination and his role in implementing it at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. The assessment includes judgements by his contemporaries and historians of Wilson and the peace settlement. A survey of the manner in which national self-determination shaped the settlement leads to a discussion of the subsequent effects of the idea on the states and territories subject to the Versailles Treaty and related treaties.

List of Maps - Preface - Early Theory and Practice - Woodrow Wilson's Life and Ideas - National Self-Determination during the Great War - The Peace Conference and National Self-Determination - Compensating for Inadequacies - Judgements on the Peace Settlement and Wilson - The Problems of German National Self-Determination - The Austro-Hungarian Successor States - Evolution of the Mandated Territories - Conclusions - Maps - Bibliography of Works Cited - Index