On the Pleasure of Reading Diplomatic Correspondence

Some years ago, in an article in the American Historical Review, I suggested various reasons for the relative lack of interest in diplomatic history among young historians. In particular, I noted that precisely because diplomatic history, with political history in general, had for so long been the principal form of historical research and teaching, it had come to appear old-fashioned and lacking in either the glamour associated with the new deconstructionist theories of intellectual history or the excitement with which mechanical techniques of measurement and analysis were now investing economic and social history. The fact that it was associated with international friction and violence did not help diplomatic history either, making it appear, indeed, to be a preoccupation appropriate only for superannuated cold warriors. What Charles S. Maier has called 'a bad conscience about the legitimacy of American power' after Vietnam contributed to this feeling, making the study of the relationships and rivalries of the Great Powers distasteful to many scholars

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