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Exporting Reconstruction

Ulysses S. Grant and a New Empire of Liberty

Ryan P. Semmes

Paperback

Published:

Hardcover
978-1-64336-517-6
Published: Nov 21 2024

$44.99

Ebook
978-1-64336-518-3
Published: Nov 21 2024

OA Ebook
978-1-64336-518-3
Published: Nov 21 2024

$0.00

The inclusion of this book in the Open Carolina collection is made possible by the generous funding of

How Reconstruction-era political battles reflected global struggles over the era's core ideals

Exporting Reconstruction examines Ulysses S. Grant's Reconstruction-era policy, both foreign and domestic, as an integrated whole. Grant's vision for America's international role in the aftermath of the Civil War was best articulated in his 1869 memorandum, considering whether the United States should annex the Dominican Republic. Grant envisioned a combined domestic and foreign policy of Reconstruction, one predicated on spreading the values of liberty, equality, and the rights of citizenship to not only the Dominican Republic but also other Caribbean nations as well as to Native Americans and Chinese immigrants living in the United States but seen as aliens within the nation.

Author Ryan P. Semmes interprets the Grant-era policy of Reconstruction as an all-encompassing agenda that imagined the United States as the arbiter of civil rights for the Western Hemisphere. Exporting Reconstruction shows readers that, unlike presidents before and after his administration, Grant hoped to increase not only the United States's imperial reach but also extend freedom and liberty to people beyond the borders of North America.




Ryan P. Semmes is professor and director of research at the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, housed at Mississippi State University.

"Ryan P. Semmes navigates exciting new departures into the international realm of Reconstruction, while furnishing a superb rehabilitation of Ulysses S. Grant's historical legacy."—Andrew F. Lang, author of A Contest of Civilizations: Exposing the Crisis of American Exceptionalism in the Civil War Era, a 2022 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize finalist

"No president has risen farther in rankings by presidential historians than Ulysses S. Grant. Ryan P. Semmes, demonstrating the fruits of his long involvement with the Grant Papers, offers a fresh evaluation of the foreign policy of this Reconstruction President."—Ronald C. White, author of American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant

"This ambitious volume illuminates the overarching coherence of Ulysses S. Grant's foreign and domestic policies, making it a compelling reading for courses on the Civil War era, American diplomacy, and Western history."—David Prior, author of Between Freedom and Progress: The Lost World of Reconstruction Politics and editor of Reconstruction and Empire: The Legacies of Abolition and Union Victory for an Imperial Age

"Semmes skillfully uncovers new connections between Grant's Reconstruction policy toward African Americans and his ambition to construct a multiracial, Republican empire across and beyond North America. Highly recommended."—Stacey L. Smith, author of Freedom's Frontier: California and the Struggle over Unfree Labor, Emancipation, and Reconstruction

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