Informal ambassadors
Subtitle: American women, transatlantic marriages, and Anglo-American relations, 1865-1945
By: Dana Cooper
Series: New studies in U.S. foreign relations
Publisher: The Kent State University Press
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Kent, Ohio
Language: eng
Number of pages: 259
ISBN-13: 9781606352144
Subjects: Foreign relations; Politicians' spouses; History; Women; Political activity; Aristocracy (Social class); Biography; Americans
Description: From 1865 to 1945, a number of prominent marriages united American heiresses and members of the British aristocracy. In Informal Ambassadors, author Dana Cooper examines the lives and marriages of the American-born, British-wed Lady Jennie Jerome Churchill, Mary Endicott Chamberlain, Vicereine Mary Leiter Curzon, Duchess Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, and Lady Nancy Astor. This cohort of women surprised their families both British and American by exhibiting an extraordinary degree of agency in a period that placed women solidly outside the boundaries of politics and diplomacy. Without the formal title of diplomat or membership in Parliament, these women nonetheless exerted significant influence in the male-dominated arena of foreign affairs and international politics. As the wives of leading members of the British aristocracy, they had uncompromised and unlimited access to the eyes and ears of individuals at the highest level in Great Britain the very decision makers who formulated and implemented foreign policy with their home country. Collectively and individually, these informal ambassadors worked to improve relations at the turn of the twentieth century, and by no coincidence, the United States and Great Britain began to view one another less as adversaries and more as allies. Combining diplomatic history with gender and women's history, Informal Ambasadors demonstrates not only that could women act as transnational envoys at a time when they could not apply for State Department employment but that they influenced Anglo-American relations to a degree never before considered by historians.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references(pages 239-250) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: an extraordinary galaxy of American women; title: Courting transatlantic marriages; title: Amazon attaché: Jennie Jerome Churchill; title: Drawing-room diplomat: Mary Endicott Chamberlain Carnegie; title: Devoted mediator: Mary Leiter Curzon; title: Elegant envoy: Consuelo Vanderbilt Marlborough Balsan; title: Candid consul: Nancy Langhorne Shaw Astor; title: The American invasion; title: Conclusion: ambassadors by any name.