ABSTRACT The purpose of this book is to examine the foreign policy ideas of American statesman William Jennings Bryan. It is a straight history, and the purpose of straight history about a single person and the players around that person is to learn everything that influenced the one person’s thinking and decisions, and then compare the thinking and decisions to other people in history. Bryan was a leader of the Populist and Progressive movements in the United States from the turn of the 20th Century until 1925. Consequently, he often is identified with domestic reforms. Bryan advocated policies such as: prohibition, women's suffrage, a graduated income tax, the direct election of senators, government ownership of railroads and telegraph systems, the initiative and referendum, and limits of one term in office for the President and Vice President. Historians have written little about his foreign policy beliefs in comparison with his ideas on domestic reform, however. In large part, this seems due to the fact that he negotiated 30 arbitration treaties as Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson. Historians have assumed him to be a strict pacifist because of the arbitration agreements, and argued that he offered the United States no realistic means of accomplishing its foreign policy goals. Bryan's foreign policy ideas have been portrayed as idealistic at best, so many historians have not taken that much of an interest in them. History offers much evidence of realpolitik in the Commoner's foreign policy thinking, however. Bryan volunteered to fight in two American wars, the Spanish-American War and World War I. He also advocated the deployment of U.S. troops in Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic to calm long-lasting revolutions and in-fighting there. Eventually, he even came to support U.S. participation in the League of Nations. Bryan believed that the United States should not lose its chance to influence the way nations interacted with each other, especially after the calamity of World War I. The Commoner's decision to support the League of Nations came after a long personal struggle. There was enough realpolitik in his foreign policy beliefs, in fact, that he held onto the Monroe Doctrine as one of his main guides to foreign relations for the bulk of his career. If the Commoner was willing to risk his own life in war and send American troops abroad, then, the question becomes what was the Commoner after? He was not after American empire, or the subjugation of other peoples. He made this clear from early in his career. In the election of 1900, Bryan ran for President on a platform that included anti-imperialism as its main plank. He believed that the United States should not annex Cuba, the Philippines, or Puerto Rico, which it had occupied during the Spanish-American War. The Commoner said that he was after the idea of self-government. In his nomination speech for the presidency in 1900, he announced that the new American mission should be to "raise nations." The chief aims of U.S. foreign policy, he added, should be to promote the concepts of "government by consent of the governed" and democracy, and to develop a system of relations between nations that would bring a lasting world peace. During the election, he offered to create American protectorates over Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico while they each developed a democratic government. What is not clear from this research is to what degree the Commoner respected the unique histories and characters of other nations. From all indications, he seems to have believed that the American form of democracy, with its President, judicial branch, and legislative branch, was the crowning achievement of history. It is not clear if there was room for other forms of democracy in the Commoner's plan for foreign policy, such as legislative monarchies and socialist governments. By 1920, when Bryan argued for American participation in the League of Nations, he seems to have come to the realization that other nations, and especially democracies, could be negotiated with. He also seems to have believed that all nations deserved a voice in the new organization. This is an area that should be explored by further research. A second area that needs further exploration is Bryan's foreign policy towards Asia. He did support the Open Door policy because of its emphasis on free trade with Asian countries, but he appears not to have spoken out a great deal about policy in the Far East during his career. Perhaps this was because of his reliance on the Monroe Doctrine, which he drifted away from towards the end of his career. This thesis is compiled from both primary and secondary sources. The main primary sources used are The Memoirs of William Jennings Bryan, World Peace: A Written Debate Between William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryan, Bryan on Imperialism: Speeches, Newspaper Articles, and Interviews, and other books that contain the Commoner's speeches. The secondary sources are discussed in the Introduction to the book. Reed Miller has written another book called Come Forth Now, Servant Nation Of Peace! It is a philosophical and religious work that encourages the United States to adopt the attitude of the servant in international relations, and promote peace and the economics of a large world family, rather than seeking to dominate others economically and through war. Similarities between the Natural Law of family relations (the principles of a loving, successful family) are considered and emphasized in the book, and compared to the principles of the New Testament to develop national policy. A plan for world peace also is developed based on a conflict resolution dispute used by Buddhists, who have not had a major conflict amongst themselves in 2,000 years.