Review: Europe: Ireland and Anglo-American Relations 1899–1921
| Author | H.C. Allen |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207302800117 |
| Date | 01 March 1973 |
| Published date | 01 March 1973 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS
169
the
Concert
of
Europe.
The
value
of
the
material
brought
together
here,
which
is
but
little
affected
by
the
fact
that
the
author
has not
arranged
it
as
well
as
he might
have
done,
makes
one
look
forward
to
the
French
instalment.
F.H.
Hinsley/St
John's
College,
Cambridge
IRELAND
AND
ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS
1899-1921
Alan
J.
Ward
Toronto:
University
of
Toronto
Press,
1969,
xii,
291pp,
$9.50
First,
may
I
apologize
most
sincerely
to
the
International Journal
and,
even
more, to
Dr
Ward
for
the
inexcusable,
if
explicable,
lateness
of
this
review?
But
the
book,
if
not
the
review,
is
very
well
worth
waiting
for.
It
is
a
masterly study.
It
is
thoroughly
researched
and
written
with
elegance
and
verve.
It
is
more,
too,
then
a
narrow
monograph,
and
justifies
the
author's
broad
intention
of
illuminating
'the
relationship
between domestic
and
international
affairs,'
something
not
always
present
in
works
on
international
relations and
even
on
international
history.
For
scholars,
he
establishes
a
number
of
points
of
the
first
import-
ance,
not
least
among
them
the
fact,
which
has
often
been
disputed,
'that
the
Irish did
play
an
important
role
in
Anglo-American
relations
and
in
the
formulation
of
American,
and
to
a
lesser
extent
British,
foreign
policy.'
He
clearly
documents
the
fact
that
'the
Irish
were
an
extremely
vociferous
and
influential
element
in American
public
opinion and
a
large
number
of
them
were
voters.
Their
slogans
were
simple:
they
wanted
freedom for
Ireland
as
the
American
colonies
had
wanted
their
freedom,
they
opposed
"alliances"
with
Britain,
they
op-
posed
any
involvement
in
European
affairs,
they opposed
imperialism.'
He
cites
thoroughly
convincing
evidence
of
their
effective
intervention
at
a
number
of
critical
moments
in
Anglo-American
relations
during
these two
decades.
I
find
the
book
most
impressive, however,
for
its
impartiality
and
detachment,
virtues
notably (if
not
perhaps
surprisingly) absent
from
the writings
of
historians
in
this
field.
(Compare
it,
for
example, with
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