{"product_id":"9781400888795","title":"Protestants Abroad: How Missionaries Tried to Change the World but Changed America","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThey sought to transform the world, and ended up transforming twentieth-century America\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBetween the 1890s and the  Vietnam era, many thousands of American Protestant missionaries were sent to  live throughout the non-European world. They expected to change the people they  encountered, but those foreign people ended up transforming the missionaries.  Their experience abroad made many of these missionaries and their children  critical of racism, imperialism, and religious orthodoxy. When they returned  home, they brought new liberal values back to their own society. \u003ci\u003eProtestants  Abroad\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the untold story of how these missionary-connected  individuals left an enduring mark on American public life as writers,  diplomats, academics, church officials, publishers, foundation executives, and  social activists.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDavid A. Hollinger provides  riveting portraits of such figures as Pearl Buck, John Hersey, and \u003ci\u003eLife\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e publisher Henry Luce, former \"mish kids\" who strove through  literature and journalism to convince white Americans of the humanity of other  peoples. Hollinger describes how the U.S. government's need for citizens with  language skills and direct experience in Asian societies catapulted dozens of  missionary-connected individuals into prominent roles in intelligence and  diplomacy. Meanwhile, Edwin Reischauer and other scholars with missionary  backgrounds led the growth of Foreign Area Studies in universities during the  Cold War. The missionary contingent advocated multiculturalism and  anticolonialism, pushed their churches in ecumenical and social-activist  directions, and joined with Jewish intellectuals to challenge traditional  Protestant cultural hegemony and promote a pluralist vision of American life.  Missionary cosmopolitans were the Anglo-Protestant counterparts of the New York  Jewish intelligentsia of the same era.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eProtestants Abroad\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the crucial role that missionary-connected  American Protestants played in the development of modern American liberalism,  and how they helped other Americans reimagine their nation's place in the  world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47137815757040,"sku":"9781400888795","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781400888795_p0.jpg?v=1763713661","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781400888795","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}