Book Reviews and Notices : Earlier Diplomatic History: 1492-1713. By SIR CHARLES PETRIE. (New York: Macmillan Company. 1949. Pp. xii, 251. $2.75.) Diplomatic History: 1713-1933. By SIR CHARLES PETRIE. (New York: Macmillan Company. 1949. Pp. xii, 384. $2.75.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400117
• Date: 01 March 1951
• Author: Charles E. Martin
• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Subject Matter: Articles

BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTICES
Earlier Diplomatic History: 1492-1713
.
By SIR CHARLES PETRIE. (New
York: Macmillan Company. 1949. Pp. xii, 251. $2.75.)
Diplomatic History: 1713-1933.

By SIR CHARLES PETRIE. (New York:
Macmillan Company. 1949. Pp. xii, 384. $2.75.)
In two brief volumes, Sir Charles Petrie has undertaken to present
the running story of diplomacy, chiefly European, from the close of the
fifteenth century to the rise of Hitler in 1933. This latter date he cor-
rectly regards as the termination of controls in Europe imposed by the
Treaty of Versailles and its companion settlements, and the beginning
of another era. The first volume covers the history of diplomacy from
the Age of Discovery and its important diplomatic consequences to the
close of the War of the Spanish Succession and the Treaty of Utrecht.
The second volume begins with Europe at the Treaty of Utrecht, and
traces the thread of diplomacy through the French revolutionary and
Napoleonic wars and World War I, including the great treaty settlements,
respectively, of Vienna and Versailles. The author fortunately omits the
events leading to World War II, the war itself, and postwar developments
as being too recent to permit their review and evaluation in sufficient
perspective.
In a study which attempts to be a survey, however brief, of all
diplomacy, more reference to and discussion of the origins of diplomacy
prior to the close of the fifteenth century is desirable. Much of what
happened afterward, and why, can only be explained in the light of the
rise of the nations in Europe and their struggle with Church and Empire,
antedating the year at which the author of these volumes begins. How- ’
ever, there must be some principles of inclusion and exclusion in treating
of so vast a theme, and Sir Charles has safeguarded himself from criticism
by indicating that such reservations are necessary, and that an author
must begin somewhere. He follows the traditional historical method
of dealing with events by means of chronology or by episodes, which
results in a summary of facts and events for the record; and in delineating
the major threads in the development of that record, rather than...