Citizen of a Wider Commonwealth: Ulysses S. Grant's Postpresidential Diplomacy (World of Ulysses S. Grant)

the long version

In 1877 former president Ulysses S. Grant, along with his family and friends, embarked on a two-year world tour that took him from Liverpool to Yokohama with stops throughout Europe and Asia. Biographies of Grant deal briefly, if at all, with this tour and generally treat it as a pleasure trip filled with sightseeing, shopping, wining, and dining. Far from an extended vacation, however, Grant's travels in fact constituted a diplomatic mission sanctioned by the U.S. government. In this revealing volume, Edwina S. Campbell chronicles Grant's journey - the first diplomatic mission ever undertaken by a former U.S. president - and demonstrates how it marked a decided turning point in the role of the United States in world affairs. Grant met with monarchs, ministers, and average citizens, creating the model for the summitry and public diplomacy practiced by future American presidents while articulating concepts of national self-determination, international organization, and the peaceful settlement of international disputes decades before Elihu Root's advocacy of binding international arbitration and Woodrow's Wilson's proposal for the League of Nations. Campbell reveals Grant to be a skillful envoy who brought to his travels the deep interest in foreign policy issues he had shown during his administration. By illuminating the significance of Grant's often overlooked postpresidential travels, Citizen of a Wider Commonwealth establishes the eighteenth president as a key diplomat whose work strongly influenced the direction of future U.S. foreign policy and contributes substantially to the study of American international relations. -- from dust jacket.