This book examines historic examples of US public diplomacy in order to understand how past
uses and techniques of foreign public engagement evolved into modern public diplomacy as a tool
of American statecraft. The study explores six historic cases where the United States'
government or private American citizens actively engaged with foreign publics starting with
the American Revolution in 1776 through the passage of the Smith-Mundt Bill of 1948. Each case
looks specifically at the role foreign public engagement plays in American statecraft while
also identifying trends in American foreign public engagement and making connections between
past practice of foreign public engagement and public diplomacy and analyzing how trends and
past practice or experience influenced modern American public diplomacy.
