Book Review: Ireland and the Great War: A Social and Political History by Niamh Gallagher

Abstract

also sheds light on the real questions and challenges of using them effectively. As with so much of early British intelligence history, the surviving archival record for codebreaking operations in this period is very limited and the narrative has been pieced together from a wide range of different sources. Larsen should be congratulated for this work, although some of his conclusions, particularly the extent of British reading of American messages and the degree to which it was used to impact policy, will likely be challenged. The revisionist nature of this book, and the tone in which it is written, will make it a contentious work among historians of the First World War. It is, however, an important study on a comparatively underexplored subject, and Larsen’s weaving of economic and intelligence threads into the broader political and diplomatic history adds real value. It is hoped that the book will spark further debate and scholarship on both peacemaking and Anglo-American relations during the First World War.