Veteran diplomatic correspondent Paul Richter goes behind the battles and the headlines to show how American ambassadors are the unconventional warriors in the Muslim world—running local government, directing drone strikes, building nations, and risking their lives on the front lines. The tale’s heroes are a small circle of top career diplomats who have been an unheralded but crucial line of national defense in the past two decades of wars in the greater Middle East. In The Ambassadors, Paul Richter shares the astonishing, true-life stories of four expeditionary diplomats who “do the hardest things in the hardest places.” The book describes how Ryan Crocker helped rebuild a shattered Afghan government after the fall of the Taliban and secretly negotiated with the shadowy Iranian mastermind General Qassim Suleimani to wage war in Afghanistan and choose new leaders for post-invasion Iraq. Robert Ford, assigned to be a one-man occupation government for an Iraqi province, struggled to restart a collapsed economy and to deal with spiraling sectarian violence—and was taken hostage by a militia. In Syria at the eruption of the civil war, he is chased by government thugs for defying the country’s ruler. J. Christopher Stevens is smuggled into Libya as US Envoy to the rebels during its bloody civil war, then returns as ambassador only to be killed during a terror attach in Benghazi. War-zone veteran Anne Patterson is sent to Pakistan, considered the world’s most dangerous country, to broker deals that prevent a government collapse and to help guide the secret war on jihadists. “An important and illuminating read” (The Washington Post) and the winner of the prestigious Douglas Dillon Book Award from the American Academy of Diplomacy, The Ambassadors is a candid examination of the career diplomatic corps, America’s first point of contact with the outside world, and a critical piece of modern-day history.

From the author of Heretics comes this “informative and enjoyable glimpse at the travails and achievements of emissaries over thousands of years” (Booklist). We think of ambassadors as simply diplomats—but once they were adventurers who dared an uncertain fate in unknown lands, bringing gifts of greyhounds and elephants to powerful and unpredictable leaders. In vivid detail, The Ambassadors traces the remarkable journeys of these emissaries, taking us from the linguistically challenged Greek Megasthenes to the first Japanese embassies to China and Korea; from Mohammed’s ambassadors to Egypt to the envoys of Byzantium, who had the unenviable task of convincing Attila the Hun to stop attacking them. We also witness the dialogue between Europe and Moorish Spain, and meet the ill-fated envoys sent in search of the mythical king Prester John. What Europe still thinks of Asia and what Asia still thinks of Africa were in no small part kindled in these long-ago first encounters. From the cuneiform civilizations of the ancient Near East to the clashing empires of the early modern age, JonathanWright brings alive the men who introduced the great cultures of the world to each other. “Illuminating the practice of diplomatic immunity, the gradual formalization of the institution of global diplomacy and the role of maverick diplomats, Wright carefully balances general developments in the scope of ambassadorial duties with colorful and exemplary tales of particular instances.” —Publishers Weekly

Russia and the United States have over two hundred years of diplomatic history and have never gone to war against each other. Here are THE AMBASSADORS who are partly responsible for this, ours to them, and theirs to us...ALL of them to date in a historical biographical book.

The evolution of the office of the ambassador from the primitive messenger (nuncius) through the Roman law procurator to the nearly modern resident ambassador is traced in this study of the ambassador of representative institutions to the relations among states in the Middle Ages. The book makes use of official diplomatic documents, many unpublished, and most of them drawn from archives in Venice, England, and Flanders, reflecting the diplomatic activities of a great Italian city-state, a national monarchy, and a powerful feudal county. Chronicles have been used as supplementary sources, especially when the chronicler was an experienced diplomat, such as Villehardouin or Commines. Originally published in 1967. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The book presents the first English edition of “On Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich” by Grigorii Kotoshikhin. This is the only native source describing the character of the seventeenth-century Russian state and society. It offers a unique and detailed picture of the nature of Russian “autocracy”, the life at the tsar’s court, social mores of the nobles and commoners of those times, military affairs, diplomatic relations, etc. The book is a veritable ethnographic encyclopedia of early Russian life. With broad commentaries and supporting materials provided by the translator, Benjamin Uroff, and the editor, Marshall Poe, it provides an invaluable source for understanding XVII-century Muscovite Russia.

Examines the life and writings of Henry James including detailed synopses of his works, explanations of literary terms, biographies of friends and family, and social and historical influences.