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This book will help to establish the fact that it has been erroneous to teach American diplomatic history as a series of incidents belonging to a particular administration, a particular President, a particular Secretary of State or a particular diplomatic agent. Rather, American diplomatic history should be understood as a continuum of interests centered about the North Atlantic and always essentially related to a European context. Americans and the American government were not isolationist minded in their policies in the mid-nineteenth century. There were broad outlines and objectives for which the American government and its representatives abroad constantly worked ; these activities did involve the United States in the affairs of other nations ; and these objectives can be discerned in studying the daily activities of the Belgian Legation from 1830 to 1850.
This book will help to establish the fact that it has been erroneous to teach American diplomatic history as a series of incidents belonging to a particular administration, a particular President, a particular Secretary of State or a particular diplomatic agent. Rather, American diplomatic history should be understood as a continuum of interests centered about the North Atlantic and always essentially related to a European context. Americans and the American government were not isolationist minded in their policies in the mid-nineteenth century. There were broad outlines and objectives for which the American government and its representatives abroad constantly worked ; these activities did involve the United States in the affairs of other nations ; and these objectives can be discerned in studying the daily activities of the Belgian Legation from 1830 to 1850.
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