"Edwina S. Campbell's Citizen of a Wider Commonwealth is part of a series on the general and president by the Southern Illinois University Press, and they picked a great subject for this volume: Grant's world tour from 1877-1879 introduced the new, post-Civil War America to much of the world and, in turn, much of the world to America. Campbell, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer, was, because of her background in the practice and study of diplomacy, uniquely qualified to write [about this topic]. 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 citizen's ability to meet whatever challenges came their way.'-- Allen Barra in America's Civil War "Bringing to her subject impeccable credentials and keen insight as a former diplomat and as a professional historian, Edwina Campbell finally sets the record straight on the importance and meaning of Ulysses S. Grant's 1877-79 world tour .

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. He was the first--and far from the last--former U.S. president to engage with people of other countries and cultures, from common people to businessmen to national leaders. 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 "Campbell examines the world tour taken by former president Ulysses S.

Grant in the context of changes that occurred both globally and within the United States rather than as a sunset experience for a diminished past president somewhat down on his luck. Grant and his contemporaries realized the Civil War and the political, economic, and social changes that paralleled and followed it had empowered the United States and its place in the world. They sensed, too, that the world around them was changing. Grant's trip had elements of a vacation, but Campbell convincingly shows it was also a strategic assessment undertaken by one of a handful of Americans who had the necessary experience and perspective. 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 " 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. Must reading for anyone interested in the forces shaping American foreign policy as the continental power took its place on the world stage."-- Charlotte Ku , Texas A&M University School of Law " Citizen of Wider Commonwealth--Ulysses S. Grant's Postpresidential Diplomacy offers a wealth of material to inform scholars of a moment in American history that has long been ignored. Ms. Campbell's book awakens interest in Grant as an international diplomat who was reticent of speech but vocal in his actions and his perceptions that echo today. Her book bears significant literary history and historic value as it presents details of that effort previously not brought to light."-- James Middleton.