The Culture of Diplomacy

This is not a traditional international relations text that deals with war, trade or power politics. Instead, this book offers an authoritative analysis of the social, cultural and intellectual aspects of diplomatic life in the age of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. It authoritatively illustrates several modes of Britain’s engagement with Europe, whether political, artistic, scientific, literary or cultural.

Mori consults an impressively wide range of sources for this study including the private and official papers of 50 men and women in the British diplomatic service. Gender, class and ethnicity are important categories of analysis, for rarely have the papers of women, the Anglo-Irish or the middle class been used to shed light on eighteenth century international relations. The book is divided into three sections: the first constitutes a social history of the service, complete with accounts of education and marriage; the second deals with the politico-cultural conventions underlying diplomatic theory and practice; and the third addresses the subject of intellectual and cultural diplomacy in the forms of tourism, patronage and publication. Diplomats were the overseas support staff of the tourist industry. They were also active as historians, scientists, novelists, antiquarians and art collectors; as such, active contributors to the international exchange of knowledge and contemporary debates on enlightenment, civilization, barbarism, revolution, nation and empire.

This book will be essential reading for students and lecturers of the history of International Relations and will offer a fascinating insight in to the world of diplomatic relations to all those with an interest in British and European history.