Mistakes and Myths: The Allies, Germany, and the Versailles Treaty, 1918–1921*
For nearly forty years, historians of twentieth-century diplomacy have argued that the Versailles treaty was more reasonable than its reputation suggests and that it did not of itself cause the Depression, the rise of Hitler, or World War II. Their efforts have had little effect, despite Margaret MacMillan’s best-selling Paris 1919. The distorted view of The Economic Consequences of the Peace and J. M. Keynes’s other works still dominates both the Anglo-American historical profession and the English-speaking educated public, though Zara Steiner pointed out in The Lights That Failed that the Versailles treaty was the mildest of the 1919–20 settlements. Despite scholarly opinion, condemnation of the Versailles treaty continues without cease. The latest addition to an immense literature, The Versailles Treaty and Its Legacy, by Edward M. Bennett and the late Norman A. Graebner,
Gift Exchange
250 | Tsantsa #26 | 2021 easily accessed and travelled by researchers. Photographs, maps, and comprehensive tables depicting quantitative data on cater­ pillar fungus pricing, ownership of livestock, and household appliances complete this thoroughly researched and enjoyable eth­ nography. Readers looking for a comparative approach on sudden economic booms and commodity chains might feel that the book lacks a more global perspective, including a discussion of literature on similar phenom­ ena beyond rural Tibet and China. How­ ever, the author’s explicit aim was to analyse Golok pastoralists’ everyday lives, the rapid transformation of their livelihoods and, finally, the socio­economic shifts observed in a region due to a new form of income; in this the book admirably succeeds. Emilia Roza Sulek has produced a beautifully writ­ ten and accessible monograph that will be of interest to scholars working on pastoralism, shadow economies, and resource extraction, as well as processes of development and state­making in Tibet, the Himalayas and China. This book is not only an illuminating piece of work for undergraduate and gradu­ ate courses on Central and East Asia, but also offers a comprehensive case study for courses in economic anthropology. Anne Kukuczka, University of Zurich, anne.kukuczka@uzh.ch
Capturing Crime in the Antipodes: Colonist Cultural Representation of Indigeneity
This chapter adopts a Southern criminological lens, which allows the authors to explore how colonialism has been constructed and depicted in museums within both regional and urban Australia. By studying spatial and historical silences in Australian museums, this chapter offers a consistent frame to chronologically chart Anglo-Australian depictions of Indigeneity, imperialism and violence wielded by the state. As this chapter will argue, museums can often reflect Westernized (white) conceptualizations about Indigeneity and the state violence involved in colonization, which actively re-enforces popular views and influences sociopolitical visions of identity, the state and justice.