Sinking of the RMS Lusitania significant "false flag" controversy left the ship; Cunard later explained that he was "tired and really ill." He was replaced with a new commander, Captain William Thomas Turner, who had previously commanded "Lusitania", "Mauretania", and "Aquitania" in the years before the war. On 17 April 1915, "Lusitania" left Liverpool on her 201st transatlantic voyage, arriving in New York on 24 April. A group of German–Americans, hoping to avoid controversy if "Lusitania" were attacked by a U-boat, discussed their concerns with a representative of the German Embassy. The embassy decided to warn passengers before her next crossing not to sail aboard
The World That Never Was "full of bathos as well as bombs, of a naivety that fomented revolution but never controlled what happened next" and also noted its relevance to 21st-century terrorism. Wendy Smith in the "Los Angeles Times" praised "Butterworth's deeply knowledgeable, exceedingly well-written text" for its awareness of anarchism's shortcomings, and "The Washington Post"'s John Smolens described "The World That Never Was" as a "thorough, compelling examination" capable of portraying "anarchism as the product of an inexorable human impulse" and questioning whether anarchist ideas may persist in the present. Mark Mazower of "Bookforum" commended the book for showing the significance of the period