Maurice PalZologue: the Diplomat, the Writer, the Man and the Third French Republic [Paperback]

This study is intended as the first biography of Maurice Pal?ologue, an important figure in the diplomatic history of the Third French Republic. He has never received adequate recognition or biographical attention for his role in the events surrounding the immediate outbreak of World War I and French policy towards Russia and the Balkans in 1920. This book brings to the surface the possibility of a powerful behind-the-scenes influence exerted by Pal?ologue to initiate and/or execute policy decisions of a controversial nature.
It examines documents from the British Foreign Office and the French Foreign Ministry that were used extensively from 1907 to 1917 when Pal?ologue emerged from the inner depths of the departmental apparatus of the Quai d'Orsay. The material is important in illuminating and analyzing two virtually unknown chapters in Pal?ologue's career: his Ambassadorship to Bulgaria and his efforts to shape a comprehensive war aims agreement while at St. Petersburg. Extensive use has been made of Pal?ologue's varied writings, as well. Because Pal?ologue's thoughts and actions were consistent with one another, an analysis of the writers' ideas yields a fuller understanding of the diplomat's motives. Such a comparison between ideas and their realization is of vital significance in explaining why Pal?ologue engaged in intrigue, obfuscation, and insubordination in the various diplomatic posts he held. Through this analysis the reader is provided with a cohesive theory and interpretation of Pal?ologue's life.

Irwin Halfondis Professor of History at McKendree College, where he has taught since 1988 while serving, since 1990, as Humanities Division Chair. Prior to that he was Associate Professor of History at Eureka College and Livingstone College where he chaired, at each institution, the Social Science Division. He earned a doctorate from Temple University in Modern European Diplomatic History. His writings include over forty History Encyclopedia arlƒ,