Excerpt from American Foreign Policy: 1865-1900

This is not intended as a survey of American foreign relations between 1865 and 1900. If some of the events commented upon tend to assume an exaggerated significance herein, it is mostly because Godkin himself exaggerated them. Similarly, much that is of importance, but which that many-sided publicist neglected to discuss, has been omitted. For identification of the editorials of Godkin, the writer has used Daniel C. Haskell's recent, admirable Nation Index.

After 1881 Godkin's editorials were written for the New York Evening Post. Of these, well over a thousand have been identified through their having been reprinted in the Nation, which by the terms of its merger with the Evening Post in 1881 became the weekly edition of that paper.

For brevity Godkin will appear in footnote citations only where necessary to prevent misunderstanding. All titled editorials listed are therefore his work unless otherwise indicated. The writer pleads convenience (e.g. accessibility of the Nation for reference) for the fact that the bulk of his citations after 1881 are from Nation reprints instead of the primary source, the Evening Post. To provide continuity where necessary, a number of references to "The Week, " a series of random leader paragraphs in the Nation written by Godkin and his subordinates, have been made. This is prominently the case in Chapter III, which deals with a period for which records of authorship of Nation articles are scant.

Relatively few contributions by Godkin to publications other than the Nation and the Evening Post were applicable to this study.

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