ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on a small group of cultivated people who were instrumental in promoting Anglo-American relations primarily through the media of literature but also through biographical history and religion. The similarities between religious and Anglican practices and diplomatic practices underline the similarities between ancient religious institutions and rituals and more modern national institutions, with their attendant rituals, as the customs of one adapted, influenced and intersected with the invented traditions of another. In certain respects, unofficial 'cultural diplomacy' can be viewed as a bridge in this societal transition. Anglo-American literary tourism gained popularity with steam travel across the Atlantic; both the author's tour and writer's 'homes and haunts' had an impact on cultural diplomacy. Both Britain and the United States engaged writers in the diplomatic and consular services, a practice that supplemented the more professional service. Tourism was a complex factor in the sub-structure of diplomacy partly due to its representational aspect and the demands it made on sites.