margaret mcmillin. [ applause ] that was extremely kind. thank you. the commonwealth sticking together. it was much too kind, but thank you very much for that introduction. many thanks to the war museum for inviting me back again. this is my third visit here and i've enjoyed every one and i tell everyone that they must come to kansas city, and it's almost becoming a family thing and my colleague was here last fall and be careful the rest of the family might be following along. we've both been so enthusiastic. this is a good time, a hundred years later and anniversaries can be useful in taking stock in looking back and what happened at the end of the first world war as the whole of the first world war is something that has shaped the history of the 20th century and also shaped the world in which we live and so i think it's quite useful to use anniversaries to think about what that means and what those great events of the past meant and what that might mean for us today and i think it's quite right that in your title you put 1919 piece question mark bec

. >> historian margaret mcmillin is the author of paris, 1919, six months that changed the world.next she examines the 1919 paris peace conference which sought to hammer out a peace treaty for world war i and the difficulties in reaching an agreement that satisfied all participating nations' territorial claims and adequately punish germany for its war-time actions. the world war i museum hosted the talk as part of the annual symposium last november.