Citizen of a Wider Commonwealth

Edwina S. Campbell is a former U.S. Foreign Service officer who worked on several presidential visits and summit meetings during her years with the Department of State. After leaving the diplomatic service, she taught American foreign policy at the University of Virginia, was a professor of grand strategy at National Defense University, and retired in 2014 as a professor of national security studies at Air University. Since 1985 she has been a frequent practitioner of public diplomacy for the U.S. Information Agency and the Department of State. Campbell’s numerous publications include Germany’s Past and Europe’s Future: The Challenges of West German Foreign Policy and The Relevance of American Power: The Anglo-American Past and the Euro-Atlantic Future.

"This is one of the most fascinating Civil War books of the last few years, a fitting tribute to a man who 'practiced diplomacy as he had once waged war, without hubris or fear, but with unwavering confidence in himself and in his fellow citizens' ability to meet whatever challenges came their way.'"—Allen Barra, America's Civil War Magazine"Campbell's fascinating book explores not only a particular moment in nineteenth-century U.S. foreign relations, but the origins of many diplomatic techniques that would become central to American foreign policy in the twentieth century."—Tizoc Chavez, Passport: The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Review"By contrast with most Grant biographers, Edwina Campbell chronicles Grant's travels with the understanding that he was on a U.S. government-sanctioned diplomatic mission—in fact, the first diplomatic mission ever undertaken by a former U.S. president."—The Foreign Service Journal"Campbell does a wonderful job of detailing how Grant dealt with the portentous decorum of the British Empire, which worked to downplay his mission by providing him with all of the ceremony of an ex-sovereign but denying him that same dignity as he ventured into areas of the empire east of the Suez."—Dustin McLochlin, Presidential Studies Quarterly"In her lucid and fast-paced book, Campbell makes clear that as his country's 'ambassador at large,' Grant pioneered the practice of public diplomacy. . . . This volume both adds to the growing revisionist scholarship on Grant and confirms that those who dismiss the contributions and legacy of the eighteenth president do so at their own peril."—John David Smith, author of Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops"This is an important book, not only for scholars of Grant but also for students of U.S. foreign policy, the latter part of the nineteenth century, and the evolution of the role of presidents in and out of office."—Kenneth B. Moss, professor emeritus, National Security Studies, National Defense University"Citizen of a Wider Commonwealth is the untold story of Grant's postpresidential 'world tour,' a diplomatic mission that sought to position the United States for the power and influence it would wield in the twentieth century. A must-read for anyone interested in the forces shaping American foreign policy as the continental power took its place on the world stage."—Charlotte Ku, Texas AM University School of Law