The Diplomats' World ─ The Cultural History of Diplomacy, 1815-1914

This volume explores the history of nineteenth-century diplomacy and in a new and innovative way. Drawing on the diplomats' many and varied encounters between their own individual and professional circles and the "wider world," this study discusses diplomacy as a part of the cultural history of politics. While many modern works on foreign affairs marginalize the nature of diplomatic practice, this volume links form and content, presenting diplomacy as both a real world experience and a structural element in international relations. All sixteen essays share a common interest in the interdependencies between individual personalities, experiences, and structural context and their relevance to the conduct of diplomacy and, ultimately, the outcome of diplomatic events. Among the topics covered are the social history and the operating norms of the diplomatic establishment, the influence of the public sphere on the conduct of diplomacy, the role of etiquette and protocol in diplomatic encounters, and the impact of traditions and ideology, and administrative regulations and local necessities on diplomatic practice. The case studies illustrate the close links between official and sometimes not so official interstate relations in the period between the Congress of Vienna and the outbreak of the First World War. The way in which the transformation of the political landscape affected political decision-making is discussed not only for the European great powers, but also as an international and global phenomenon. The comparative approach of this volume permits the inclusion of secondary European states such as Switzerland and non-European states in America, Asia, and North Africa. Diplomacy is thus presented as a transnational phenomenon in its own right.

Markus Mi??sslang is a fellow at the German Historical Institute London and editor of the multi-volume edition British Envoys to Germany. He specializes in the study of Anglo-German relations, the history of diplomacy, and nineteenth-century German and British history. Previously he was a research assistant at the University of Munich.

Torsten Riotte was educated at the universities of Cologne and Cambridge. After five years as a research fellow at the German Historical Institute London he is currently lecturer in Modern European History at the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. His special area of interest is the history of European elites during the long nineteenth century. He is currently working on a study of European courts in exile.