
Exporting Reconstruction: Ulysses S. Grant and a New Empire of Liberty
MSU Affiliation
University Libraries; Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library
Abstract
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.
Publication Date
2024
Publisher
University of South Carolina Press
City
Columbia, SC
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ISBN
9781643365176
Recommended Citation
Semmes, Ryan P. (2024). Exporting reconstruction: Ulysses S. Grant and a new empire of liberty. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.