Andrew DeRoche's interpretation of Andrew Young as a man who combined the internationalism of Woodrow Wilson and the anticolonial and antiracist sentiments of W.E.B. Du Bois is both novel and enlightening. Much more than a mere biography, this volume makes a substantial and valuable contribution to our understanding of the complex and often frustrating interactions between race, civil rights, and U.S. foreign policy in the post–World War II period.
Michael L. Krenn, Appalachian State University DeRoche has not only written a readable and perceptive biography of a key figure in recent American history, but a book that uses Young to examine crucial issues in both domestic and foreign affairs. The blend of personality and policy is especially well done and holds the reader's attention throughout. A major addition to the growing literature on the influence of racial issues on foreign policy.
Thomas Noer, Carthage College Andrew Young: Civil Rights Ambassador is a sophisticated analysis of a key figure in American history and diplomacy. Remarkably, this book combines such traditional interests as Wilsonianism and the Cold War with the new scholarly issues of race, human rights, Africa, globalization, and free trade into a readable and shrewd study of Andrew Young.
Thomas W. Zeiler, author of Ambassadors in Pinstripes: The Spalding World Baseball Tour and the Birth of the American Empire