Historical Dictionaries of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations
There is a lot to like about Scarecrow's various Historical Dictionaries series. -Booklist There are three basic categories in this series, although they are all closely related to one another. One sub-series traces American diplomacy by historical periods, showing how it evolved over time, and another focuses on United States relations with specific countries or regions, such as Great Britain, Russia, China, Japan or the Middle East. The third, still emerging, deals with foreign relations within specific crucial regions. Given its coverage, the books in this series should sometimes be accompanied by reading from other series such as country volumes on the states involved, intelligence and counter-intelligence to uncover some of the dirty tricks, and also war for cases which have gone badly wrong. As for the other series, the format is the same, with a list of acronyms (all too abundant here), a chronology and a broad introductory essay. Then comes the main portion, the -dictionary,+ with several hundred cross-referenced entries on significant players such as presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers, the main causes and issues, the institutions involved in making and carrying out foreign policy, and major achievements such as treaties or international organizations and assorted crises and, in the worst case, conflicts and wars. Appendixes provide more detailed information and the bibliography allows readers to follow up on specific interests.

Editor(s): Jon Woronoff