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WORK TITLE: Raising the Flag: America’s First Envoys in Faraway Lands
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NATIONALITY: American
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PERSONAL
Male.
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CAREER
Diplomat. Has worked with the U.S. Foreign Service.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Peter D. Eicher is a former American diplomat. He served with the U.S. Foreign Service in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific for many years with a focus on human rights, international organizations, conflict resolution, and political affairs. Eicher edited “Emperor Dead” and Other Historic American Diplomatic Dispatches in 1997. With coauthors Zahurul Alam and Jeremy Eckstein, he published Elections in Bangladesh 2006-2009: Transforming Failure into Success in 2010.
Eicher published Raising the Flag: America’s First Envoys in Faraway Lands in 2018. The account looks at the early diplomatic efforts of the nascent United States of America on the international stage. Among these initial efforts included diplomatic missions to the Ottoman Empire, China, and countries along Africa’s Barbary Coast. The book also discusses American diplomatic efforts in then foreign lands, such as Louisiana and California. Eicher chronicles the men who served as the earliest diplomatic representatives in the years before an official foreign service had been set up, noting how they primarily came from the ranks of traders and sailors, while one was even a poet by profession. In some cases, these representatives were not even American citizens. Eicher explains what role these various consuls played in domestic and international affairs, including fueling the California Gold Rush and becoming a villain in folk literature in Japan. Other early diplomats opened trade with China, facilitated wars, encroachment into Hawai’i, and the establishment of a standing navy.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly reasoned that “though the writing can lean toward the academic, this book brings to light little-known stories that will fascinate early-America enthusiasts.” A contributor to Evilcyclist’s Blog pointed out that the book “covers something taken for granted by most Americans, The Americanisation of California and the West coast. America existed in the world and owed much of that presence to independent American citizens representing American interests and many times their own financial interests.” The same reviewer concluded by calling Raising the Flag “a well written and very informative history of early American diplomacy.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, April 30, 2018, review of Raising the Flag: America’s First Envoys in Faraway Lands, p. 55.
ONLINE
Evilcyclist’s blog, https://evilcyclist.wordpress.com/ (March 25, 2018), review of Raising the Flag.
Peter D. Eicher is a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer who served in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific. He specialized in political affairs, particularly human rights, conflict resolution, and international organizations. Eicher is the editor of “Emperor Dead” and Other Historic American Diplomatic Dispatches and Elections in Bangladesh, 2006–2009: Transforming Failure into Success.
Raising the Flag: America's First Envoys in Faraway Lands
Publishers Weekly. 265.18 (Apr. 30, 2018): p55.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Raising the Flag: America's First Envoys in Faraway Lands
Peter D. Eicher. Potomac, $36.95 (416p)
ISBN 978-1-61234-970-1
Retired diplomat Eicher unearths tales of some of the fledgling United States' first envoys to foreign lands--"foreign" at the time including Louisiana and California, as well as the Ottoman Empire, China, and Africa's Barbary Coast. With an official government foreign service years off, the men sent abroad to represent the U.S. in the two generations after the Revolutionary War were a motley mix of traders, sailors, and even a poet. The first U.S. representative to Tahiti, Jacques-Antoine Moerenhout, wasn't even American. Their experiences in the countries where they served were likewise mixed. James Cathcart, later the first U.S. consul in Tripoli, began his career in North Africa as a slave laborer in Algiers. Reports by Thomas Larkin, the first and only U.S. consul to California, played a key role in feeding the gold rush frenzy in 1848. Japanese lore has made Townshend Harris more famous for his role as the villain in stories of the geisha Okichi-san than for his contribution to opening relations between the U.S. and Japan. Eicher makes a strong case for the importance of these largely underappreciated early diplomats. Though the writing can lean toward the academic, this book brings to light little-known stories that will fascinate early-America enthusiasts. Agent: Margery Thompson, Thompson Literary Agency. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Raising the Flag: America's First Envoys in Faraway Lands." Publishers Weekly, 30 Apr. 2018, p. 55. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A537852303/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8cf99271. Accessed 25 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A537852303