Dissertation Research & Analysis

Through a Glass Darkly: Creating the U.S. Foreign Service, 1775-1825
The dissertation analyzes the origins and early changes to the U.S. Foreign Service, beginning with the earliest attempts to engage French support for the American Revolution and ending with the appointment of American ministers in the new republics of South and Latin America. In explaining how the Foreign Service functioned on a day-to-day basis during its formative years, the dissertation provides a unified understanding of American representation in the Age of Revolutions and rediscovers how the early U.S. Foreign Service worked closely with the merchant community to expand and protect American interests abroad.

The Early American Foreign Service Database To complete my analysis I am building a database to catalog all the diplomats, consuls, and special agents that served in the American Foreign Service between 1775 and 1825. The EAFSD places biographical and professional information about all foreign service officers in a relational data structure to trace the early American governments' attempts to deploy and control their overseas representatives. The database also recreates the correspondence networks that sprung up between the officers as they sought the information and expertise necessary to fulfill their duties from each other. The EAFSD runs on Project Quincy. To see screenshots click here.