| The origins of this book are in the 1960s. Then, it seemed to me and to many of my generation of students, we were confronted by an absurdity. On the one hand the world was becoming a more egalitarian and democratic place. On the other war, the "sport of kings," seemed to flourish. For this reason I became interested in the social bases of diplomacy. Encouraged by the historian Oscar Handlin, I took up a Charles Warren postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University in 1971-72, to study the influence on foreign policy of six social groups: organized labor, citizens of color, immigrants, university students, consumer organizationsand women. This book is the belated first fruit of that enterprise. |
| Over the years my research benefited from considerable generosity. I owe major debts to the trustees of residential fellowships which created islands of opportunity in the midst of a teaching career: those of the Charles Warren Center for the Study of American History; of the John F. Kennedy-Institut fr Nordamerikastudien at the Free University of Berlin; of the Ada E. Leeke Research Fellowship, Northwood Institute, Margaret Chase Smith Library Center, Skowhegan, Maine; and of the Canadian Commonwealth Visiting Fellowship scheme, for which I was sponsored by the University of Toronto. I am grateful to these, as I am for other types of financial assistance: an Overseas Fellowship from the British Academy, several grants from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, and grants from the American Philosophical Society and the Moray Fund. |
| The advice and criticism of a considerable number of individuals have been invaluable. All of the following helped me in a substantial way, supplying ideas, practical assistance, interviews, and encouragement or commenting in a scholarly manner on portions of the book's early drafts: Bella Abzug, Willi Paul Adams, Tom Barron, Crispin Bates, Christine Bolt, Susan M. Bowden, Angus Calder, John Whiteclay Chambers, Wayne S. Cole, Jeremy Crang, Robert A. Divine, Charlotte Erickson, Gregory |
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1995