The Scarecrow Press, well known for its wide range of historical dictionaries, introduces a new series with this volume. Of its 1,000 or so entries, the majority extend only to a few lines, and about two‐thirds deal with people; the most important, such as US Presidents, rate about a page, and there are long articles on such topics as the international aspects of the Civil war, and the foreign policy issues important to each presidential election campaign (the predominant one was the level of the tariff). Other articles concern specific foreign policy crises, conferences, treaties, countries important to US policy, and occasionally general topics such as Expansionism. Some of the numerous diplomats included had been, or would become, well known in other spheres, such as anti‐slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass, the Confederate general James Longstreet, and the authors J.L. Motley and Henry Adams. Very few non‐US personalities are listed, and the choice is somewhat eclectic: for instance the composer Dvořák is featured because his music took up American themes. The intended level of readership is not stated, but no doubt comprises undergraduate and general readers.
The profile of the United States in international affairs was to become much more prominent as the chosen period went on. Before the Civil War, the traditional Washingtonian policy of trying to avoid foreign entanglements had usually prevailed (though Mexican observers might not agree). A classic definition of it by President John Quincy Adams is quoted: “America goes not forth in search of monsters to destroy”. (How different from the present day!) But by the last decade of the nineteenth century, Secretary of State Richard Olney was asserting that the United States “is practically sovereign on this continent” and shortly after that, by the Spanish‐American War, acquired an empire parts of which she still possesses. And, by 1917, the Central Powers were to discover what would happen when America did throw her weight into the scale of world affairs.
The supplementary material includes an analytical introduction discussing general trends in US foreign policy; a chronology of the period; lists of leading office bearers (though that of Secretaries of War mysteriously ends in 1885); a list of members of the US Diplomatic Corps (which, however, seems not to be complete, since, for instance, no Consuls are included for Great Britain even though the text confirms that there were such officials); and a classified bibliography of 600 items, mostly monographs with a few periodical articles. There is no index, but much use is made of see and see also references. The book is enlivened by some appropriate illustrations. It would be a useful addition to the shelves of any library with an interest in the history of the United States.
