Description
Book Synopsis Keith Hamilton was formerly an historian in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and has written extensively on British diplomacy.
Trade ReviewThis 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. *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: An Office of Class and Classification
Part I: Keepers of the Office 1. Residents 2. Pets, Pests and Other Miscreants 3. Riot and Debauchery
Part II: Keepers of the Papers 4. Arranging, Methodizing and Digesting 5. Quite de Jack in Office 6. Much Irregularity 7. The Hardest Working Man in Europe 8. Unhappy Spirit 9. Misnomer’s Heir
Part III: Carriers of the Papers 10. Persons of a Very Subordinate Class 11. A Change in the Class of Persons 12. New Ways for Old 13. Matters of Caprice and Fancy 14. The End of Superintendence
Part IV: Adjusting to the New 15. Servants of the New 16. Theft, Negligence and Security 17. Divisions of Labour 18. Pestilence, Redolence and Sustenance
Part V: Managing the Past 19. Supernumeraries, Supplementals and Pay 20. Archives, Arrears and Registers 21. Publishing the Record 22. After the Hertslets 23. Custody, Research (and Arrears)
Part VI: Delivering the Message 24. Rewarding Gentlemen 25. Here Today but Gone Tomorrow 26. Testing their Worth 27. Going Local, Paying Less Conclusion Bibliography Index
