Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: the Protestant boomerang -- To make the crooked straight: Henry Luce, Pearl Buck, and Jehn Hersey -- To save the plan: can missions be revised? -- The Protestant international and the political moblization of churches -- Anticolonialism vs. Zionism -- Who is my brother?: the white peril and the Japanese -- Telling the truth about the two Chinas -- Creating America's Thailand in diplomacy and fiction -- Against Orientalism: universities and modern Asia -- Toward the Peace Corps: post-missionary service abroad -- Of one blood: joining the civil rights struggle at home -- Conclusion: Cain's answer.

Between 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. Protestants Abroad 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. -- Provided by publisher.