Navigating Neutrality: Early American Governance in the Turbulent Atlantic (The Revolutionary Age) - Softcover

Sandra Moats (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813947561 ISBN 13: 9780813947563

Publisher: University of Virginia Press, 2021

Synopsis

Navigating Neutrality explores the unexpected role George Washington’s 1793 Neutrality Proclamation played in energizing the U.S. government’s constitutional responsibilities to support and promote America’s commercial and sovereign interests. Designed to avoid warfare as Great Britain and France battled in the Atlantic during the French Revolutionary Wars, neutrality encompassed a wide range of issues, including diplomacy, law, defense, commerce, and domestic politics.

Proclaiming neutrality proved easier than enforcing it. American citizens eagerly accepted lucrative French privateering commissions, and Britain retaliated by attacking American ships, cargos, and sailors. In response, Washington and his cabinet formulated policies to enforce neutrality across all three branches of the government and around the globe. Maritime citizens, stranded in the Caribbean and Mediterranean, especially came to appreciate the government’s rescue efforts. As Sandra Moats shows, enforcing neutrality galvanized all three branches of the nascent U.S. government, serving as a manifesto of the young nation’s quest to be respected in its independence and helping to build a U.S. government capable of supporting its global aspirations.

About this title

About the Author

Sandra Moats is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Parkside and author of Celebrating the Republic: Presidential Ceremony and Popular Sovereignty, from Washington to Monroe.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813947561
• ISBN 13: 9780813947563
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232