Peace Handbooks. Prepared Under the Direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office.

First editions thus of 125 briefing handbooks on different countries, territories, and aspects of international law which featured prominently in the Versailles negotiations and in interwar geopolitical relations. The handbooks were originally prepared and published internally by the Foreign Office for the use of British delegates to the Paris Peace Conference. In spring 1917, the FO established a dedicated historical section, under the direction of George Walter Prothero (1848-1922, a former president of the Royal Historical Society), to compile information on the history, geography, economy, culture, and present situation of participating countries and their colonies. Assistance with data and maps was provided by the Admiralty intelligence division (naval staff), the war trade intelligence department, and the geographical section of the General Staff (military intelligence division) of the War Office. In 1919, over 160 handbooks were eventually issued in blue wrappers. In 1920, "in response to numerous enquiries and requests", the FO decided to release the guides to the public in green wrappers under the HMSO imprint, with the text of each substantially unaltered. Several of the internal publications were consolidated into one or published under a different title. This wide-ranging collection encompasses over three quarters of the 162 handbooks issued by HMSO: numbers 1-14, 17-23, 25-31, 33-41, 64-66, 68-71, 74, 76-142, 144-152, and 154-161. These include many contested European regions - for example, Alsace-Lorraine (30) and Lorraine and Saar Minefields (31) - and regional analyses such as France and the Levant (66). It includes many desirable works in the series, including Persian Gulf (76), with details of the histories and political situations of the Gulf states, Manchuria (69), the extraterritorial cantons of Kiaochow and Weihaiwei (71), and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (98). Together 125 works in 12 vols, octavo (205 x 132 mm). With 3 tables recording Kiel Canal tonnage, map of Easter Island. Near-contemporary red half morocco (Hatchards, Piccadilly), red cloth sides, spines lettered and ruled in gilt, raised bands tooled with gilt dotted rolls, light pink endpapers, top edges gilt. Bound without the original green wrappers for each handbook. A little bumping and rubbing neatly recoloured, "Africa" volume with joints repaired and creasing to book block, tape repair at fore-edge of "Upper Silesia" p. 34, a few leaves browned in "German Opinion on National Policy Prior to July 1914: Part II", else clean and bright internally. A very good collection indeed presenting attractively on the shelf.…