Unsurprisingly, in writing a book that covers four centuries and two subjects as enormous as foreign relations and religion, I have accumulated numerous debts—indeed, far too many to mention here. Nonetheless, some thanks are in order.
This book has been planned, researched, and written under the aegis of three institutions, each remarkable in its own way. I first began the book at Yale University, where I spent three years as an Olin Fellow. My main base at Yale, International Security Studies, was (and remains) a wonderfully nurturing environment where scholars from a wide variety of disciplines can exchange and debate ideas. At ISS, I am especially grateful to its directors, Paul Kennedy and John Lewis Gaddis, and its teaching and support staff (as they were then constituted) of Ted Bromund, Charlie Hill, Minh Luong, Ann Carter Drier, and Susan Hennigan. I also learned a great deal from fellow Fellows Ray Takeyh, Peter Westwick, and especially Jeff Engel. At the History Department, where I taught, Jon Butler and Skip Stout generously met with me to discuss American religious history and gave me advice on how to manage my approach to it. Ceara Donnelley provided excellent research assistance even as she began her legal career at the Law School.
I then moved to the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, where the Baird clan made me feel right at home. UVic is a special place, and a part of me has never left. I would especially like to thank those colleagues who took a special interest in my work: Sara Beam, Greg Blue, Martin Bunton, Simon Devereaux, Brian Dippie, Karen McIvor, Andrea McKenzie, Lynne Marks, Eric Sager, Tom Saunders, and Liz Vibert. I will particularly miss the late Ted Wooley, whose generosity of spirit and intellectual curiosity remain an inspiration.
Finally, my home institution, Cambridge University, where I teach American and international history, has been a uniquely stimulating environment. My bases there, the History Faculty and Clare College, have both been wonderfully supportive. My debts are many, but in particular I would like to thank those who have taken the time to discuss my book with me: Tony Badger, Duncan Bell, Bill Foster, Roger Greeves, John Guy, Joel Isaac, Sophie King, Barak Kushner, Gideon Mailer, Peter Mandler, Dan Matlin, Terry Moore, Michael O’Brien, William O’Reilly, Richard Rex, David Reynolds, Greg Seach, Mike Sewell, Ellie Shermer, Brendan Simms, Sujit Sivasundaram, John Swenson-Wright, John Thompson, and Betty Wood. One of the pleasures of being an Americanist at Cambridge is the arrival, every two years, of a visiting Pitt Professor of American History. In my time at Cambridge, I have been fortunate to work with three friendly and generous Pitts—Nancy Hewitt, Jim Kloppenberg, and Mills Thornton—all of whom discussed my project at length and offered helpful advice. I am also thankful to my graduate students who specialize on some aspect of the linkage between religion and American public life: Jonathan Bronitsky, Phil Dow, Naama Gaathon, John Heavens, Charlie Laderman, and Olivia Sohns. To an extent unlike anywhere else, Cambridge has an astonishing variety of forums in which academics can present their work. For this privilege, I am grateful to the American History Research Seminar in the History Faculty, the Cambridge History Society, the History of Christianity Research Seminar in the Divinity Faculty, the International History Research Seminar in the Centre of International Studies, the Trinity Hall History Society, and the history societies of Churchill, Corpus Christi, Magdalene, Murray Edwards, Queens’, St. John’s, and Trinity colleges.
I am immensely grateful to those colleagues who closely and critically read draft chapters that cover their own areas of expertise: Tim Borstelmann, Richard Carwardine, Darren Dochuk, Jeff Engel, Susan Ferber, Andy Fry, Malcolm Gaskill, Will Inboden, Joel Isaac, Richard King, Malcolm Magee, David Milne, Mark Noll, Michael O’Brien, David Reynolds, Leo Ribuffo, Brendan Simms, and John Thompson. Not all of them will agree with the final product, but I’m confident they’ll recognize that the book is much improved for their reading of it.
I would be remiss if I did not also mention those who have discussed the connections between religion and foreign relations with me and generously offered their time and advice, often in response to a question or plea for help, or invited me to their university to present my work: Brooke Blower, Liz Borgwardt, Paul Boyer, Mark Bradley, Aron Burke, Dan Carter, Frank Costigliola, Mario Del Pero, Mike Desch, John Dumbrell, Kate Carté Engel, Kate Epstein, Charlie Gallagher, Eric Gregory, Jonathan Hagel, Simon Hall, Jussi Hanhimäki, Michael Hopkins, Seth Jacobs, Sheyda Jahanbani, Andrew Johnstone, Matthew Jones, Charles Keith, Dianne Kirby, Scott Kleeb, Sandra Kraft, Melissa Lane, Helen Laville, Mark Lawrence, Steven Lawson, Mel Leffler, Fred Logevall, Lorenz Lüthi, Erez Manela, Marco Mariano, Kaeten Mistry, Mike Morgan, Catherine Morley, Sam Moyn, Hang Nguyen, Jolie Olcott, Devin Pendas, Helle Porsdam, Doug Rossinow, Andy Rotter, Dom Sandbrook, Axel Schäfer, Bruce Schulman, Bevan Sewell, Sarah Snyder, Gagan Sood, Anders Stephanson, Stephen Tuck, Ian Tyrrell, Molly Worthen, Marilyn Young, Julian Zelizer, and David Zietsma. In addition, I would like to thank the following for their comments when I presented work-in-progress at various conferences: Frank Gavin, Will Inboden, Mark Kramer, Bill Miscamble, Emily Rosenberg, Leigh Schmidt, Tom Schwartz, Jeremi Suri, and Monica Toft. Tragically, my good friend Jon Persoff died as this book was nearing completion; after our countless conversations in New Haven and Los Angeles, I know he would have loved to see it in print. He was One Strong Dude and will be missed.
I would also like to thank the scholars and students at various institutions for inviting me to present my work and for offering critical feedback to it: in Denmark, at the University of Copenhagen; in Germany, at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster; in Ireland, at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin; in Italy, at the universities of Bologna and Turin; in Switzerland, at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva; in the United Kingdom, at the Institute of Historical Research in London, the London School of Economics, the Rothermere American Institute in Oxford, St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and the universities of East Anglia, Keele, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, and Nottingham; and, in the United States, at Boston College, the Camden Conference, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Lone Star Conference, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, Boston, Harvard, Princeton, Texas A&M, and Yale universities, and the universities of Connecticut and Notre Dame. I must also thank the U.K.’s Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding a sabbatical period that allowed me to finish writing a draft of the manuscript.
In every way, this book has been the product of three Andrews, and simply could not have been written without the other two. My literary agent, Andrew Wylie, showed enthusiasm at the very earliest stages and encouraged me to conceive of the book as broadly and ambitiously as possible. At the Wylie Agency, I would also like to thank Rebecca Nagel (in New York) and James Pullen (in London). Andrew then placed the book with my superb editor, Andrew Miller, who showed monastic levels of (nearly) infinite patience as the book assumed a life of its own, became much bigger, and took much longer to complete than either of us had ever imagined. I would also like to thank yet another namesake in New York, Andrew Carlson, who shepherded the manuscript through production, as well as Paul Taunton at Random House Canada in Toronto.
Last but not least comes my family. No longer will they need to ask, as has been their wont, “So … is the book finished yet?” The Patricks were, typically, warmly supportive. My brother Kevin was a steady source of ideas and feedback. My wife, Fran, and children, Rosie and Lizzie, have had to put up with my heading out of town for research trips, lectures, and conferences and, when I was finally home, usually found me hunched over my laptop at the kitchen table. If anyone has shown more patience than my editor, it is Fran, who has, characteristically, been a constant source of love and support and, not least of all, the book’s title. Finally, I am enormously grateful to my parents, Harry and Mary Preston, who have always led by example rather than admonition. It is no exaggeration to say that without their unconditional generosity, encouragement, and love of reading, this book could not have been written. It is entirely appropriate that I dedicate it to them.