Bright hope : British radical publicists, American intervention, and the prospects of a negotiated peace, 1917

This dissertation is about a group of influential British publicists on the left-wing of the Liberal Party known as Radicals. The focus is on the year 1917 during the First World War and the Radical publicist’s belief in the necessity of a negotiated settlement as an essential ingredient to achieving a just and lasting peace. These publicists also believed that the United States could play a unique role in mediating an end to the war and reforming the international system. Radical publicists tirelessly campaigned for a revision of Allied war aims and were convinced that alliances, the arms race, secret diplomacy, imperialism and militarism, played a large part in the outbreak of war and its prolongation. They believed that when the peace settlement came, it should not be a peace of vengeance but a just peace that addressed these flaws in the international system. The Radical publicists looked increasingly to the American President Wilson for leadership, while Wilson was drawn to the Radical publicist’s progressive internationalist ideas, particularly the concept of a league of nations. The Conclusion examines the reason for the failure of the Wilsonian strategy to achieve a just and lasting peace in 1919, but points to the enduring legacy of the Radical publicist’s ideas about creating a stable world order. This dissertation finishes by looking at contemporary commentators who advocate an approach to world order in the tradition of the Radical publicists of the First World Wa