Atheneum paperbacks

"Six marvelously unconventional lectures...an aesthetic self-portrait and a definition of Mr. Cummings' 'stance' as a writer. Full of originality, high spirits, and aphoristic dicta, they express a credo of intense individualism." --Atlantic

"32." Includes bibliography.

This volume offers a unique perspective on a turbulent and dangerous age by focusing on the activities and accomplishments of its diplomats. Its twenty-three interconnected essays discuss the policies of ambassadors, foreign ministers, and heads of state from Acheson and Adenauer to Sadat and Gromyko, as well as the special problems of the professionals in the foreign offices and the role of the media in modern diplomacy. Among its contributors are such distinguished international scholars as Akira Iriye, Michael Brecher, Stanley Hoffmann, W. W. Rostow, and Norman Stone. . Expanding the field of inquiry covered by its acclaimed predecessor, The Diplomats, 1919-1939, which concentrated on Europe and the coming of the Second World War, these essays showcase the major diplomatic practitioners of the period against the broader background of the problems and crises that confronted them - among others, the Polish question at the end of World War II, the onset of the Cold War, the defeat of EDC in 1954, the Suez crisis, Khrushchev's Berlin note in 1958, the Middle East War of 1967 and the oil shock of 1973, the Iranian revolution, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

"Wiley sketches the course of the Confederacy's decline and reappraises the influences leading to its defeat." -- book jacket

From the back cover: "The twelve essays in this volume are a selection from the thirty-five which make up three volumes on Confucianism published over the last several years: CONFUCIANISM IN ACTION, THE CONFUCIAN PERSUASION, and CONFUCIAN PERSONALITIES. The selection was made on the basis of recommendations from all the authors who contributed to the three volumes. Each of the studies is by a leading scholar: Benjamin Schwartz, Hui-chen Wang Liu, Charles O. Hucker, Joseph R. Levenson, Hans H. Frankel, Gung-wu Wang, Hellmut Wilhelm, Arthur F. Wright, James F. Cahill, Robert Ruhlmann, David S. Nivinson, Frederick W. Mote. Professor Wright, in his new introduction, says in summary that these essays 'are meant to illustrate the effects of the Confucian world view and its associated patterns of behavior on the development of Chinese civilization. They also suggest the Confucian tradition's capacity for adaptation, as well as something of its inner variety . . . Confucianism provided the normative ideas that brought Chinese society back, again and again, to long periods of stability, and creative achievement. As the central tradition of the massive human achievement that we call Chinese civilization, it deserves our attention and respect.'"