Book review

In American and the Making of an Independent Ireland, Francis M. Carroll maintains that between 1916 and 1928, the US as a whole “performed a crucial role” (xii) in the transformation of Ireland. While it is generally accepted that Irish-Americans massively supported the Irish demands for self-government, something the author had already extensively written about, most notably in American Opinion and the Irish Question, 1910-1923 (1978), here Carroll enlarges the scope of his analysis to the American Senate and House of Representatives and to US Presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Calvin Coolidge. Relying upon extensive diplomatic archives, private papers and the correspondence of statesmen in Britain, Ireland and the United States, along with the local archives of Irish-American organizations, Carroll convincingly demonstrates that the US played a determining part in the achievement of the century-long aspirations of the Irish. Praise must be given to the author for marshalling such a wide impressive range of archives. His magnum opus will undeniably capture the attention not only of specialists of Ireland and Irish-American relations but also of scholars of the First War World, humanitarianism and the Irish diaspora, together with academics interested in US constitutional law and diplomatic relations.