Ambassador Extraordinary

Envoy Extraordinary: A Most Unlikely Ambassador
$68.00
Glasgow-born grandson of poor Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Horace Phillips dreamed as a teenager of a career in the diplomatic service - if only as a British consul. But family circumstances and the Civil Service Commission ruled this out, and at 17 he became an Inland Revenue tax clerk, later passing the executive class examination. Following wartime army service, and a period working as a member of Mountbatten's staff during his time as Viceroy, Phillips entered the diplomatic service through one of the highly competitive examinations open to ex-servicemen. As a vice-consul in south Persia he began a career of 30 years that took him to a variety of eastern countries, and he eventually rose to the post of senior ambassador.

Horace Phillip's memoirs describe an interesting and varied life, and includes accounts of some important moments in history: the British withdrawal from Aden; Nyerere on the brink of taking Tanzania out of the Commonwealth; and Turkey's intervention in Cyprus. Phillips also describes the personal trauma of the King of Saudi Arabia's rejection of him as British Ambassador, after "The Jewish Chronicle" had publicized the fact of his Jewishness.

On mandatory retirement at 60 he became resident representative of a major engineering group for nine years in Persia, Bahrain, Hong Kong and China. For 5 years he was a lecturer in international relations at a Turkish university for one term per year.

An American by Degrees: The Extraordinary Lives of French Ambassador Jules Jusserand
$49.95
The expressions of American hostility toward France after 9/11 are not new - Franco - American relations in the early twentieth century were also difficult, characterized by the same antagonistic depictions of the other's culture. Ambassador Jules Jusserand's years in Washington (1903-24) were defined by efforts to correct such misconceptions, whether they came from the venomous pens of French extremists or from members of William Randolph Hearst's press empire. In "An American by Degrees", Robert Young explores Ambassador Jusserand's life and legacy. Fluent in English, married to an American, and a historian who was a frequent guest at many American universities, Jusserand deftly cultivated American sympathies for France. His tasks as a diplomat were formidable, whether during the period of America's war-time neutrality - when France was nearly over-run by the German army - or when as allies they competed for control of the peace process or sought to resolve post-war issues like disarmament, war debts, and reparations. Jusserand relentlessly reminded Americans that France had been an ally during their Revolution and that their concept of 'civilization' was part of France's intellectual and cultural legacy. His emphasis on their shared history was natural, as befitted the first winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History and only the second foreigner to serve as president of the American Historical Association.

Iwakura Embassy, 1871-1873: A True Account of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary's Journey of Observation through the United States of America and Europe
$1,250.00
This is the first English translation of the official report submitted by the Iwakura Embassy to the Meiji government. The five volume report was first published in Japanese in 1878. Between 1977 and 1982, Iwanami Shoten published a Japanese language library edition which enabled academics worldwide to evaluate how this mission changed the course of Japanese history during, and after, the Meiji era.The 50-member Embassy, led by Iwakura Tomomi, visited the United States and 12 major European countries in search of ways in which Japan could modernize her social and economic infrastructure. In each country the Embassy visited, it investigated that nation's political and military situation as well as the state of the economy, industry, education, culture and religion. After a total of 22 months abroad, the Embassy returned home in September 1873. This new English-language edition of the Embassy's report will undoubtedly open up avenues for further research and study by scholars throughout the world. The publication of this monumental piece of work will not only attract Western scholars of Japan, but will also be of wider importance for its remarkable first-hand demonstration and explanation of the emergence of a modern industrial nation, as well as its detailed and acute observations on the social and economic infrastructure of the countries visited.