The Ambassadors: From Ancient Greece to the Nation State - Rilegato

Wright, Jonathan

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0007173431 ISBN 13: 9780007173433

Casa editrice: HarperPress, 2006

Riassunto

An authoritative and entertaining account of the earliest ambassadors, who were at once diplomats, explorers and chroniclers of exotic civilisations.

In this book of extraordinary journeys and epochal encounters, Jonathan Wright traces the ambassadors’ story from Ancient Greece and Ashoka’s empire in India to the European Enlightenment and the birth of the nation state. He shows us Byzantine envoys dining with Attila the Hun, 13th-century monks journeying from Flanders to the Asian steppe, and Tudor ambassadors grappling with the chaos of Reformation. He examines the rituals and institutions of diplomacy, asking – for instance – why it was felt necessary to send an elephant from Baghdad to Aachen in 801 A.D. And he explores diplomacy’s dangers, showing us terrified, besieged ambassadors surviving on horsemeat and champagne in 1900s Beijing.

Wherever they journeyed, ambassadors reported back on everything they encountered – from moralities and myths to the plants and animals, fashions and foods of the countries in which they found themselves. Exchanging ideas and commodities, they enabled countries and civilisations to get acquainted in sometimes unpredictable ways.

Whether discussing the replacement of the roving by the resident ambassador or the subjects of the diplomatic immunity, gift-giving, intelligence-gathering and extraterritoriality, the author has fresh and intriguing things to say. For ambassadors, as much as any conqueror, merchant or explorer, have helped to write the human story.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

‘Wright carefully balances general developments in the scope of ambassadorial duties with colourful and exemplary tales of particular instances.’ Publishers’ Weekly

‘Never dull.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘This is a book to cherish...Wright’s book should be on every diplomatic shelf.’ Oxford Times

Praise for ‘The Jesuits’:

‘It is an extraordinary story, which Wright tells colourfully. [His] book is full of vivid incident.’ Simon Callow, Guardian

‘Jonathan Wright’s witty book makes for a roller-coaster read.’ Eamon Duffy, Sunday Telegraph

‘Wright brings a lightness of touch and a full-blooded humanity to the task of understanding the Jesuit mystique.’ Sunday Times

‘Bursting with well-chosen anecdotes.’ Daily Telegraph

L'autore:

Jonathan Wright, the author of The Jesuits, was educated at Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: HarperPress
• Data di pubblicazione: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0007173431
• ISBN 13: 9780007173433
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 352