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Diplomat and historian [[Philip D. Zelikow|Philip Zelikow]] argues that House's actions and advice to Wilson in the 1916-1917 period significantly extended World War I. At a time when both the Allies and Central Powers were anxious to begin peace talks, House often misread and misled Wilson, as well as his contacts in Britain and Germany, about each others' intentions and conditions for peace. This led Wilson to crucially delay offers to initiate a peace conference, and eventually fumble the diplomatic procedures necessary to make such an offer. While it is unclear if these mistakes were caused simply by House's lack of diplomatic experience or were instead intentional misdirects intended to protect House's own social standing, Zelikow argues that this failure of diplomacy was a primary reason for Wilson's eventual break with House following the end of the war.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Zelikow|first=Philip|title=The Road Less Traveled: The Secret Battle to End the Great War, 1916-1917|publisher=PublicAffairs|year=2021|isbn=9781541750944}}</ref>
House's perspective as reflected in his personal papers, differs. House traveled in Europe to explore the possibility of peace as Wilson's unofficial agent. House was dismayed by German militarism which he believed the main cause of the war, but also by the hardened self-interest of each of the warring nations which included territorial aspirations, and Britain's fear of Germany's challenge to their military power, in particular naval primacy. The belligerents in the grip of war fever considered even discussing a peace conference a show of weakness; rejected automatically any proposal their enemy favored. Wilson's hopeful call for a reasonable, practical "peace without victory" backfired; angered the French and English fighting for Germany's utter and decisive defeat. Soldiers started calling dud shells "Wilsons." The efforts to offer American mediation foundered not for lack of trying, but because the intransigent warring nations were not ready for
[[File:Edward Mandell House cph.3b17553.jpg|thumb|left|237px|Edward M. House in 1920]]
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==Works==
* Edward Mandell House and [[Charles Seymour]]. ''What Really Happened at Paris: The Story of the Peace Conference, 1918–1919''. New York: [[Charles Scribner
* Charles Seymour (ed.), [http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=genpub;idno=ACL9380.0001.001 ''The Intimate Papers of Colonel House'']. In 4 volumes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1928.
* Edward Mandell House. ''[[Philip Dru: Administrator]]: A Story of Tomorrow, 1920-1935''. New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1912
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