Showing posts with label Diplomacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diplomacy. Show all posts
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Published This Week, Moving Up the Amazon Best-Seller Lists
Your local independent bookstore should have Our Man in Charleston: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South
prominently displayed. (And if not, ask why not!) It's also all over Amazon, with a fantastic price for the moment of $14.01 for the beautifully produced hardcover edition, plus a Kindle edition, and an Audible audio version read elegantly and appropriately by a Briton, Antony Ferguson.
The hardcover book also is available at Barnes and Noble stores and B&N online.
"Our Man in Charleston is a joy to discover. It is a perfect book about an imperfect spy."
—Joan Didion
"Thoroughly researched and deftly crafted. [Our Man in Charleston will] introduce people to a man who should be better known, one who cannily fought the good fight at a fateful moment in history."
—Wall Street Journal
"One heck of a good read."
—The Charlotte Observer
"[Bunch is] a brilliant find…Dickey, the foreign editor of The Daily Beast and a former longtime Newsweek correspondent, uses his research well: in a story like this one, point of view is everything, and Bunch's is razor sharp."
—American Scholar
"Dickey has written a book that is as much suspense and spy adventure as it is a history book... A story as compelling as this one does not come around very often. With so much already written about the Civil War, and more coming every year, originality is a rare thing these days. The story of Robert Bunch is that and more."
—The Carolina Chronicles
"A fascinating tale of compromise, political maneuvering, and espionage."
—Publishers Weekly
"Dickey's comprehension of the mindset of the area, coupled with the enlightening missives from Bunch, provides a rich background to understanding the time period….A great book explaining the workings of what Dickey calls an erratic, cobbled-together coalition of ferociously independent states. It should be in the library of any student of diplomacy, as well as Civil War buffs."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
"A fine examination of a superbly skilled diplomat."
—Booklist
"Britain's consul in Charleston before and during the first two years of the Civil War was outwardly pro-Southern and earned notoriety in the North. But in secret correspondence with the British Foreign Office he made clear his hostility to slavery and the Confederacy. His dispatches helped prevent British recognition of the Confederacy. Christopher Dickey has skillfully unraveled the threads of this story in an engrossing account of diplomatic derring-do."
—James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom
"Did Robert Bunch, Her Majesty's consul in Charleston, keep Britain out of the Confederacy's war? Drawing on Bunch's clandestine correspondence, Christopher Dickey makes a compelling case that this dazzlingly duplicitous, ardent anti-slaver played a key role. A fascinating, little-known shard of vital Civil War history, brought glitteringly alive with all the verve and panache of a master story teller."
—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March
"In his extraordinary new history Our Man in Charleston, Christopher Dickey has written a book you can't put down. This is a well-researched history with the immense power and sheer element of surprise we find in the finest spy novels. It's like reading a book by Graham Greene, written while he was staying at the house of John le Carré, discussing the fate of nations over drinks. With Charleston consul Robert Bunch, Dickey has introduced a new great man in the great war that haunts America still. I adored this book."
—Pat Conroy, author of The Great Santini and South of Broad
"Our Man in Charleston is a superlative and entertaining history of the grey area where diplomacy ends and spy craft begins. British Consul Robert Bunch played a secret role in the anti-slavery fight in Charleston, which would remain secret to this day were it not for Christopher Dickey's extraordinary detective skills."
—Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire and Georgiana
"Wonderfully written and researched, Our Man in Charleston is the best espionage book I've read. I couldn't put it down."
—Robert Baer, former CIA case officer and author of See No Evil
"Robert Bunch is an unlikely spy, but his bravery and moral sensibility make him an intriguing hero for Christopher Dickey's Civil War history. Dickey knows his stuff, from spying to the slave trade, and he's a master at telling a fast-paced, gripping yarn."
—Evan Thomas, author of John Paul Jones and The Very Best Men
"Christopher Dickey has accomplished the near-impossible—exhuming a forgotten but irresistible character from the dustbin of Civil War history, and bringing him back to life with painstaking research and bravura literary flair. This irresistible book opens new windows onto the complicated worlds of wartime diplomacy, intelligence-gathering and outright intrigue, and the result is fresh history and page-turning excitement."
—Harold Holzer, author of Lincoln and the Power of the Press and winner of the 2015 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize
"A long-needed study of Robert Bunch, British consul in Charleston—a secret agent for the Crown in the Civil War era who outwardly praised the city and its people while privately loathing both, and who discouraged diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy by keeping his superiors abreast of its determination to continue importing slaves. Elegantly written, well researched, an engrossing story."
—Howard Jones, author of Blue and Grey Diplomacy
This month I have written two essays for The Daily Beast that put "Our Man" in the context of recent events and my own background as a Southerner. The first, "Confederate Madness Then and Now," many of you have seen already. (It's had well over 100,000 readers.) The second was just published Tuesday and includes the full length 1974 documentary I made about my uncle and his passion for Civil War artillery projectiles. Don't miss the last ten minutes when he defuses a 100-pound explosive shell with a sponge, a screwdriver and a hammer ... :
Confederates in the Blood
This week I have been talking about the book and about the Confederate legacy on NPR's "Here and Now," the BBC and MSNBC. There will be more.
I am happy and, yes, more than a little proud to say the early reviews and comments have ranged from good to great, and this week the New York Times Book Review will list Our Man as an "Editor's Choice":
"Our Man in Charleston is a joy to discover. It is a perfect book about an imperfect spy."
—Joan Didion
"Thoroughly researched and deftly crafted. [Our Man in Charleston will] introduce people to a man who should be better known, one who cannily fought the good fight at a fateful moment in history."
—Wall Street Journal
"One heck of a good read."
—The Charlotte Observer
"[Bunch is] a brilliant find…Dickey, the foreign editor of The Daily Beast and a former longtime Newsweek correspondent, uses his research well: in a story like this one, point of view is everything, and Bunch's is razor sharp."
—American Scholar
"Dickey has written a book that is as much suspense and spy adventure as it is a history book... A story as compelling as this one does not come around very often. With so much already written about the Civil War, and more coming every year, originality is a rare thing these days. The story of Robert Bunch is that and more."
—The Carolina Chronicles
"A fascinating tale of compromise, political maneuvering, and espionage."
—Publishers Weekly
"Dickey's comprehension of the mindset of the area, coupled with the enlightening missives from Bunch, provides a rich background to understanding the time period….A great book explaining the workings of what Dickey calls an erratic, cobbled-together coalition of ferociously independent states. It should be in the library of any student of diplomacy, as well as Civil War buffs."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
"A fine examination of a superbly skilled diplomat."
—Booklist
"Britain's consul in Charleston before and during the first two years of the Civil War was outwardly pro-Southern and earned notoriety in the North. But in secret correspondence with the British Foreign Office he made clear his hostility to slavery and the Confederacy. His dispatches helped prevent British recognition of the Confederacy. Christopher Dickey has skillfully unraveled the threads of this story in an engrossing account of diplomatic derring-do."
—James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom
"Did Robert Bunch, Her Majesty's consul in Charleston, keep Britain out of the Confederacy's war? Drawing on Bunch's clandestine correspondence, Christopher Dickey makes a compelling case that this dazzlingly duplicitous, ardent anti-slaver played a key role. A fascinating, little-known shard of vital Civil War history, brought glitteringly alive with all the verve and panache of a master story teller."
—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March
"In his extraordinary new history Our Man in Charleston, Christopher Dickey has written a book you can't put down. This is a well-researched history with the immense power and sheer element of surprise we find in the finest spy novels. It's like reading a book by Graham Greene, written while he was staying at the house of John le Carré, discussing the fate of nations over drinks. With Charleston consul Robert Bunch, Dickey has introduced a new great man in the great war that haunts America still. I adored this book."
—Pat Conroy, author of The Great Santini and South of Broad
"Our Man in Charleston is a superlative and entertaining history of the grey area where diplomacy ends and spy craft begins. British Consul Robert Bunch played a secret role in the anti-slavery fight in Charleston, which would remain secret to this day were it not for Christopher Dickey's extraordinary detective skills."
—Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire and Georgiana
"Wonderfully written and researched, Our Man in Charleston is the best espionage book I've read. I couldn't put it down."
—Robert Baer, former CIA case officer and author of See No Evil
"Robert Bunch is an unlikely spy, but his bravery and moral sensibility make him an intriguing hero for Christopher Dickey's Civil War history. Dickey knows his stuff, from spying to the slave trade, and he's a master at telling a fast-paced, gripping yarn."
—Evan Thomas, author of John Paul Jones and The Very Best Men
"Christopher Dickey has accomplished the near-impossible—exhuming a forgotten but irresistible character from the dustbin of Civil War history, and bringing him back to life with painstaking research and bravura literary flair. This irresistible book opens new windows onto the complicated worlds of wartime diplomacy, intelligence-gathering and outright intrigue, and the result is fresh history and page-turning excitement."
—Harold Holzer, author of Lincoln and the Power of the Press and winner of the 2015 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize
"A long-needed study of Robert Bunch, British consul in Charleston—a secret agent for the Crown in the Civil War era who outwardly praised the city and its people while privately loathing both, and who discouraged diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy by keeping his superiors abreast of its determination to continue importing slaves. Elegantly written, well researched, an engrossing story."
—Howard Jones, author of Blue and Grey Diplomacy
Friday, July 3, 2015
July 3, 1861 - W.H. Russell on "a great battle expected"
The great British war correspondent William Howard Russell, a key contact for Our Man in Charleston, is on his way from New York City to Washington where excitement is mounting about a great battle to come. On his way he is reminded that Maryland is still very much a slave state even though, under duress, it remains part of the Union.
The Baltimore riots. Image from "Harper's Weekly" courtesy The American Library in Paris
July 3— ... Nearly four months since I went by this road to Washington. The change which has since occurred is beyond belief. Men were then speaking of place under Government, of compromises between North and South, and of peace ; now they only talk of war and battle. Ever since I came out of the South, and could see the newspapers, I have been struck by the easiness of the American people, by their excessive credulity. Whether they wish it or not, they are certainly deceived. Not a day has passed without the announcement that the Federal troops were moving, and that "a great battle was expected" by somebody unknown, at some place or other.
I could not help observing the arrogant tone with which writers of stupendous ignorance on military matters write of the operations which they think the Generals should undertake. They demand that an army, which has neither adequate transport, artillery, nor cavalry, shall be pushed forward to Richmond to crush out Secession, and at the same time their columns teem with accounts from the army, which prove that it is not only ill-disciplined, but that it is ill-provided. ... The greater part of the military stores of the States are in the South arms, ordnance, clothing, ammunition, ships, machinery, and all kinds of materiel must be prepared in a hurry. ...
The Secession newspapers of Baltimore have been suppressed, but the editors contrive nevertheless to show their sympathies in the selection of their extracts. In to-day's paper there is an account of a skirmish in the West, given byone of the Confederates who took part in it, in which it is stated that the officer commanding the party "scalped" twenty-three Federals. For the first time since I left the South I see those advertisements headed by the figure of a negro running with a bundle, and containing descriptions of the fugitive, and the reward offered for imprisoning him or her, so that the owner may receive his property. Among the insignia enumerated are scars on the back and over the loins. The whip is not only used by the masters and drivers, but by the police ; and in every report of petty police cases sentences of so many lashes, and severe floggings of women of color are recorded.
The Secession newspapers of Baltimore have been suppressed, but the editors contrive nevertheless to show their sympathies in the selection of their extracts. In to-day's paper there is an account of a skirmish in the West, given byone of the Confederates who took part in it, in which it is stated that the officer commanding the party "scalped" twenty-three Federals. For the first time since I left the South I see those advertisements headed by the figure of a negro running with a bundle, and containing descriptions of the fugitive, and the reward offered for imprisoning him or her, so that the owner may receive his property. Among the insignia enumerated are scars on the back and over the loins. The whip is not only used by the masters and drivers, but by the police ; and in every report of petty police cases sentences of so many lashes, and severe floggings of women of color are recorded.
June 23, 1861 - Confederates to Celebrate July 4
Bunch to Lyons, "Private":
June 23 - ... We have had quite a tempest in a teapot concerning Russell. You will see from my letter to his namesake Ld. John what I think of it — the revelation is [uncommonly?] awkward just now as regards the [several?] states of the new Confederacy, but the fact is undeniable.
I have had many letters from Russell and his companion Mr. Ward. The last from Memphis, June 18.
I am writing to your Lordship at the coolest window in my home, hour 11:30 a.m. Mrs. Bunch is amusing herself with tying the thermometer which is just now at 93 close to me, and is running up fast. The mosquitoes are [cavorting?] blithely round my ankles which are wrapped in a pieced of gauze. You may fancy how a summer campaign with volunteer troops would "eventuate" in our rice swamps.
There has been some disputing here as to whether or no the 4th of July should sill be kept in the Southern States. The decision is in the affirmative. I have always looked upon the celebration of the day by the Americans as an amiable trait in their character, as showing a disposition to be very grateful for very little. If an Englishman still regrets the issue of the revolutionary war or is mortified by the celebration of "Independence Day," he is amply compensated for his wounded feelings—Yorktown is fully avenged — the sight of the hostile armies in Virginia ought to satisfy him.
Meanwhile, Russell is scrambling in Illinois:
June 23—The latest information which I received today is of a nature to hasten my departure for Washington; it can no longer be doubted that a battle between the two armies assembled in the neighborhood of the capital is imminent.
Letter from Bunch to Lord Lyons, the British minister in Washington, courtesy of the Duke of Norfolk Archives, Arundel Castle, West Sussex, UK
Cartoon from Harper's Weekly courtesy The American Library in Paris
June 21, 1860 - W.H. Russell on the South Sucking Up to Great Britain
The great British war correspondent William Howard Russell, a key contact for Our Man in Charleston, has finally made it up the Mississippi and out of the South to Cairo, Illinois. Meanwhile, Harper's Weekly has put him on its front page.
June 21—The people of the seceding States, aware in their consciences that they have been most active in their hostility to Great Britain, and whilst they were in power were mainly responsible for the defiant, irritating, and insulting tone commonly used to us by American statement, are anxious at the present moment when so much depends on the action of foreign countries, to remove all unfavorable impressions from our minds by declarations of good will, respect and admiration, not quite compatible with the language of their leaders in times not long gone by.
The North, as yet unconscious of the loss of power, and reared in a school of menace and violent assertion of their rights, regarding themselves as the whole of the United States, and animated by their own feeling of commercial and political opposition to Great Britain, maintain the high tone of a people who have never known let or hindrance in their passions, and consider it an outrage that the whole world does not join an active sympathy for a government which in its brief career has contrived to affront every nation in Europe with which it had any dealings.
Excerpt is from W. H. Russell's My Diary North and South.
"Harper's Weekly" courtesy of The American Library in Paris
June 21—The people of the seceding States, aware in their consciences that they have been most active in their hostility to Great Britain, and whilst they were in power were mainly responsible for the defiant, irritating, and insulting tone commonly used to us by American statement, are anxious at the present moment when so much depends on the action of foreign countries, to remove all unfavorable impressions from our minds by declarations of good will, respect and admiration, not quite compatible with the language of their leaders in times not long gone by.
The North, as yet unconscious of the loss of power, and reared in a school of menace and violent assertion of their rights, regarding themselves as the whole of the United States, and animated by their own feeling of commercial and political opposition to Great Britain, maintain the high tone of a people who have never known let or hindrance in their passions, and consider it an outrage that the whole world does not join an active sympathy for a government which in its brief career has contrived to affront every nation in Europe with which it had any dealings.
Excerpt is from W. H. Russell's My Diary North and South.
"Harper's Weekly" courtesy of The American Library in Paris
Sunday, June 21, 2015
June 20, 1861 - Southern elite dreams of return to British monarchy
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| A version of this Sully portrait of Victoria gazed down on the men drafting the ordinance of secession in Charleston's St. Andrew's Hall in 1860 |
The South's Anglophile aristocrats loved to talk about returning to "The Mother Country," a theme picked up on by W. H. Russell in one of his dispatches from South Carolina and supported in this letter to Lord Lyons from Our Man in Charleston Robert Bunch. Clearly they didn't think this through, since slavery had been abolished throughout the Empire almost 30 years earlier.
June
20 - The Letters of Mr. W. H. Russell, the special correspondent of the
"Times" newspaper have been looked for in this Community with an
anxiety which to a stranger might almost appear ludicrous—But to one who, like
myself, has resided for several years in South Carolina, the desire on the part
of the people to learn the judgment which would be pronounced upon them by an
intelligent observer and writer, especially by one who commands the attention
of the world to so great a degree as does Mr. Russell, appears both natural and
proper. It has always been a subject of complaint at the South that the only
knowledge of its social system possessed by the European public is derived from
Northern sources by which it has been misrepresented and consistently vilified.
… I can, therefore, fully appreciate the solicitude with which the
criticisms of Mr. Russell were expected. He was to see and judge for himself,
not to take at second-hand the interested or prejudiced opinions (as they are
considered) of the North, or even of Great Britain on the subject of Slavery.
Four of Mr. Russell’s
letters from the Southern States have now appeared, and have, on the whole,
given satisfaction. Altho’ it is asserted that on several points of detail he
has not proved himself entirely correct (an opinion from which I altogether
differ) there exists an universal disposition to admire his fairness and be
flattered by his accounts of the people and the government. But I have found
within the last few days some inclination to deny, and even to resent, the
statements of his second letter from Charleston, dated April 30, to the effect
that the people of South Carolina, or rather its upper classes, which in this
State, at least, have the entire control of the “people,” and are the only
portion of the population whose wishes are consulted, would not object to see
the connection with the Mother Country revived, and themselves either the
subjects of Her Majesty or of a Constitutional Monarchy under an English
Prince. I have, therefore, thought it not inexpedient to assure Your Lordship
that, in my humble judgment, Mr. Russell is entirely correct in the views he
expresses. Language such as he describes has been told to me on numberless
occasions by the very best and most influential persons in South Carolina, not
only during the exciting scenes of the last few months, but from the day of my
arrival here in 1853. My Predecessor, Mr. Matthew, informed me before I came of
the existence of the same sentiment to a very great extent, and it is now
infinitely stronger than ever. I affirm most deliberately that the governing
classes of South Carolina would most gladly become the subjects of a
Constitutional Monarchy based upon the principles of British Law. ...
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
June 17, 1861 - Lord Lyons worries about Union declaring war on UK; a secret mission starts to take shape
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| Lord Lyons portrait in Seward's home |
June 10, Lyons to Admiral Milne, commander of the British fleet off the American coast, marked Private and Confidential:
"... I do not regard a sudden Declaration of War against us by the U.S. as an event altogether impossible at any moment. I just mention this confidentially. If I think the danger imminent, and am precluded from telegraphing in cypher I will send you the following Telegram: 'Could your forward a letter for me to Antigua?'"
June 14, Lyons to Lord John Russell, Foreign Secretary. Her Majesty's government, having recognized the rights of both North and South as "belligerents" some weeks earlier, is now anxious for both North and South to recognize the rights of neutrals and the rules concerning blockades as described in the declaration on maritime law issued in conjunction with the 1856 Treaty of Paris, to which neither the Union nor the Confederacy is a signatory. Lyons fears that the Union will recognize the declaration in principle, but still seize ships for ostensible failure to pay duties to the Federal officials no longer in place in the Southern ports:
"... This is likely to be the practical difficulty with regard to the question of the Belligerent rights of the South. But after all the sentimental difficulty is the great one. The present apparent success of the South in founding an independent Govt is so galling to the North, that anything which implies the admission of this self-evident fact irritates them beyond measure. As you will have seen from the tone of Mr. Seward's Despatches, the recourse is to deny the existence of the fact, not to explain it, to threaten anyone who shall dare to assert it, or even to perceive it....
"I dread the arrival of the English Newspapers with comment on the articles in the American press. I am still more afraid of the meeting of Congress next month. Unless there are very manifest signs of a change of public feeling, the extreme violent party will have it all their own way, and the members of it will vie with one another in intemperate language. The best sedative will be a manifest readiness on our part to repel an attack, however sudden, and at whatever point it may be made, and to exact immediate retribution for any offense."
June 17 to Consul Archibald in New York: "... Be very cautious [underlined three times] about send any thing South, and still moreso about receiving and forwarding letters thence."
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| Bust of Seward in the library of his home in Auburn, New York |
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