Award-winning historian and author George C. Herring gives an overview of American diplomacy, as described in his new book, *From Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations Since 1776*. Herring uses foreign relations as the lens through which to tell the story of America's dramatic rise from 13 disparate colonies huddled along the Atlantic coast to the world's greatest superpower. This book is the latest volume in the Oxford History of the United States series.
George Herring, Professor Emeritus and formerly Alumni Professor of History, has been connected to the Patterson School from the early Vince Davis years. He received his B.A. from Roanoke College in 1957 and his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1965. Professor Herring retired after thirty-six years at the University of Kentucky. He served as chair of the Department of History from 1973-1976 and 1988-1996, and he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. In 1993, he was a visiting professor at the U.S. Military Academy and in 2001 at the University of Richmond. In 2002, he was awarded the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Norman A. Graebner Prize for distinguished contributions to the field. Professor Herring's research centered on U.S. foreign relations. His most recent work is *From Colony to Superpower: American Foreign Relations Since 1776*. His other published works include *Aid to Russia*, *1941-1946: Strategy, Diplomacy*, *The Origins of the Cold War; with Thomas M. Campbell*, and , *The Diaries of Edward R. Stettinius; America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam 1950-1975*. Professor Herring is one of the nation's foremost experts on the Vietnam War.