E-raamat: Servants of Diplomacy: A Domestic History of the Victorian Foreign Office

This is a book of great erudition, and one that entertains. That is a rare enough combination. Few would attempt it; fewer still could hope to accomplish it. Hamilton has done so. In writing Servants of Diplomacy, he has done a great service to others working in the burgeoning field of diplomatic and international history. He has taken it in a new direction, using innovative ideas, but without losing sight of the wider context. There is no other work of this kind. In the otherwise overlabored phrase, this book really does break new ground. It will quickly become known as the go-to work on the subject. Scholars working in cognate areas of nineteenth-century social history will find much stimulating material and analysis in this book. It will be of interest also to anyone interested in nineteenth- and twentieth-century international history. Servants of Diplomacy is to be highly recommended. * Journal of British Studies * A charming tale of Victorian life, told from an unusual angle. While the leaders of the British empire met upstairs at the Foreign Office, below stairs were very different servants of the empire. Hamilton, with wit and an eye for telling detail, delicately dissects this hidden world. Wonderful history. * Erik Goldstein, Professor of International Relations & History, Boston University, USA. * Writing crisply and with immense authority, Keith Hamilton reveals much that we did not know about downstairs at the Victorian Foreign Office and the extent of the aristocratic paternalism it enjoyed. It is an original, absorbing and, at times, entertaining book. * G. R. Berridge, Emeritus Professor of International Politics, University of Leicester, UK. * The story is engrossing precisely because Hamilton insists on narrating the experience of Victorian people rather than relying on scholars who study them from a distance. It is a delight to be up close and personal with the staff of the Foreign Office and to see both Hamiltons archival research and the archive come to life. * Victorian Studies *