The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931

by Adam Tooze

When Curzon had addressed the House of Lords in May 1917, he had held out the prospect that the harmonious resolution of the Irish question would ‘pave the way for that world cooperation of the three greatest liberty-loving nations on earth – namely, France, the United States of America, and ourselves . . .’. ‘The settlement of the Irish question’ would thus emerge ‘as a great world factor of capital importance . . .’.67 Washington’s grudging response to the Home Rule compromise of April 1918 fell far short of that grandiose vision, and with good reason. Ireland’s political future was in no way resolved. Sinn Fein was preparing to resist conscription with force. The path to partition and a bloody civil war was clearly marked. But London’s painstaking elaboration of the Home Rule formula had done enough to prevent any serious breach with Washington.