Historian Andrew Preston first became interested in the overlap between religion and America\u2019s foreign policy decisions while teaching an undergraduate class on American foreign policy in the days leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
\u201cMy students took it for granted that [Osama] bin Laden would use extremist rhetoric, [but] they were more surprised by [President George W.] Bush\u2019s use of religious imagery and religious rhetoric to explain American foreign policy,\u201d Preston tells Fresh Air\u2019s Terry Gross. \u201cAnd they asked me if this was unusual in American history, if presidents turned to religion very often. \u2026 I told them that I\u2019d find out some more. I said that in general, I thought that religion didn\u2019t play much of a role in U.S. foreign policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Preston says he wasn\u2019t convinced of his own answer. He decided to research the topic further, only to find that historians had largely overlooked the relationship between religion and foreign policy throughout American history.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd once I started looking at the documents, once I started looking for religion, it was everywhere,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I thought, \u2018This would be something I\u2019d like to work on.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n