The Pilgrims Society and Public Diplomacy 1895-1945 by Stephen Bowman

The Pilgrims Society and Public Diplomacy 1895-1945 is an important tome written by and published by Edinburgh University Press.

It intrigued me a lot because I didn't know this society and its existence, but at the same time I wanted to try to understand more of it.

What was and still is the Pilgrims Society, first of all?

It was and it is a society composed by very wealthy American men, mainly from NYC and London.

The society was founded in 1902 by the elite of people of these two cities.
It is possible to classify this society as an "elite dining club."
The purposes of this elite, American and British? Trying to improve good relationship between UK and USA.

Some names of people involved in the society? William Waldorf Astor one for all.

The first chairman was William Sinclair Archdeacon of London while for the USA the society picked up Lindsay Russell directly from North Carolina.
This attorney worked also in New York and London and lived in many parts of the USA.
The society was just opened to British and American men.

Later, the society considered also an expansion in Boston and the West Coast substantially remaining affectionate at the city of NYC and London.
Only when Jimmy Carter understood that there weren't women in the society and he didn't want to accept the honor membership offered by the society if the society not open to women, the Pilgrims decided to accept membership from women.

As you will read the membership was very wanted and researched but at the same time there were several passages before that a new member was approved.
The Pilgrims Society played a diplomatic role like the Earl Grey Dinner can testifies but the society was active also before during and after the two world conflicts.

You mustn't never think that the involvement of this society in international relations was or is "open."
As the author says: "The Pilgrims represented an exclusive net-
work of elites, closed to democratic accountability or popular
involvement."

This society like all the other ones is closed and remains old-fashioned and as it adds the author "isolated" and defined in the Anglo-Saxon world.
Pilgrims thanks to this society searched for "commercial success and imperial prestige."

Although it is a society that of course doesn't add posters everywhere for let know to all the people that exists, it played and and still plays an important role in the backstage of our world.
If diplomacy, if foreign policy has been treated in a certain way, well, that was and is also thanks to this society.

If you love American and British culture, if you love history, if you want to understand better the world where you live in, if you love NYC or London goes for this book.

Highly suggested!

I thank Edinburgh University Press for the copy of the book.

Anna Maria Polidori