Diplomatic Despatches is a fast-paced, engaging and revealing account by an observant commentator. John Mason's letters follow a fascinating and eventful career, from his entry into the army as a teenager to his work as an experienced and accomplished diplomat, culminating in his appointment as British High Commissioner in Canberra.

As diplomats arbitrate more and more of the world's business, we have little idea - and even less control - of what they are doing in our name. 'Independent Diplomat' provides a compelling account of the conduct of foreign policy and diplomacy from the inside.

Peter Eicher's original archival research has unearthed remarkable and previously unavailable eye-witness accounts of major historic events, as described in extraordinary dispatches from American diplomats. Spanning the globe and the years from the American Revolution to the Vietnam War, "Emperor Dead" offers a fascinating window on two centuries of world history. Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne and hundreds of other one-time diplomats depict wars, revolutions, discoveries, royal courts, gold rushes, piracy, slavery, crime, earthquakes, volcanoes, and some very undiplomatic views of prominent historical figures. Every lover of history or travel will find something to enjoy in this unique compilation.

"This select catalog lists National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publications of records that relate to the history of U.S. diplomatic relations."--Introduction.

Annotation Like its predecessor, this important new work is focused on the connection between trade and investment on the one hand and U.S. foreign policy on the other. David Pletcher describes the trade of the United States with the Far East, the islands of the Pacific, and the northwest coast of North America from 1784 (the year of the first American trading expedition to China) to 1844 (the year of the first trade treaty with China, followed immediately by the U.S. acquisition of Oregon and California). He then traces the growth of trade and investment in Alaska, Hawaii, and the South Pacific from 1844 to 1890 and proceeds to do the same for China, Japan, and Korea. In the ensuing chapters, Pletcher covers the 1890s, including the annexation of Hawaii, the Sino-Japanese War, the acquisition of the Philippines, and the Open Door policy in China. He concludes that the American expansion across the Pacific and into the Far East was not a deliberate, consistent drive for economic hegemony but a halting, experimental, improvised movement, carried out against determined opposition and indifference and dotted with setbacks and failures. Providing his own judgments about the wisdom and effectiveness of America's new endeavors, Pletcher summarizes the problems and handicaps involved, demonstrating that errors of the twentieth century were at least partly the result of poor preparation in the 1880s and 1890s. Touching on every place where Americans undertook significant economic activity, The Diplomacy of Involvementwill be an important aid for seasoned scholars, as well as an excellent introduction for the novice

As the first in a larger series of publications which preserve and make accessible primary sources from various archives and other materials related to the history of Circassia, this volume contains the relevant dispatches of A. A. Challaye, the Consul of France in Odessa for the years 1836 to 1840. It offers a rare glimpse into the way French diplomacy was making sense of events in and around the North Caucasus and the eastern shore of the Black Sea at the time of increased tensions between Russia and Great Britain over the Circassian question – the political status of nations which inhabited the western part of the North Caucasus and of the North Caucasus in general.