$9.99 on Kindle, Nook, Apple Books, Kobo, Google PlayGeorge S. Messersmith: Diplomat of Democracy by Jesse H. Stiller (139,000 words, 4 illustrations)
George Strausser Messersmith (1883-1960) was a favorite of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the quintessential New Deal diplomat. A voluble, courageous, and indefatigable man, his remarkable career took him to ten posts on three continents. Figuring prominently in European and Latin American policy, his influence also reached the State Department. His life was a crusade for political and economic democracy both at home and abroad.
“It may well be that only diplomatic historians recall the name of George Messersmith today; but Jesse Stiller’s fine biography explains why this strong-minded and tempestuous diplomat made such a mark on his times. This cogent, judicious and readable account of one of the century’s noted diplomatic professionals illuminates the rise of the United States as a world power.” — Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Albert Schweitzer Chair in the Humanities, City University of New York
“This very readable and vastly informative volume deserves a wider audience than its title might suggest. An excellent study of the life and the often controversial career of George S. Messersmith, it also illuminates the inner workings of the State Department, especially during the 1920s and 1930s, and United States foreign policy, especially toward Latin America in the 1940s... Messersmith was consul general in Berlin when Adolf Hitler came to power, minister in Vienna when Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated, and assistant secretary of state when World War II began. He served as ambassador to Cuba when Fulgencio Batista was first elected president, to Mexico in wartime, and to Argentina in the early days of Juan Perón. A recounting of his activities and a reading of his voluminous dispatches (to the dismay of friend and foe alike, Messersmith was given to writing thirty- and forty-page memoranda) touches critical points on large chunks of the history of two tumultuous decades... an engrossing account that provides a judicious assessment of a man whose perspicacious anti-Nazi dispatches from Berlin were widely praised, but who also predicted the early downfall of the Hitler government, and whose alleged coddling of the “fascist” Perón was damned by colleagues and the press, but who laid the foundation for whatever successes United States policy may have had in Argentina. Messersmith emerges from these pages as a man with a consistent vision of the future and of America’s role, which he sought to implement with astonishing energy, and as a hard-headed pragmatist. But he also appears as a hotheaded ‘climber’ who managed to antagonize most of his colleagues in the foreign policy establishment at one time or another... [a] fine study.” — Manfred Jonas, The Journal of American History
“Despite not entering government service until the age of thirty, Messersmith advanced from the consular service to a significant career as a minister in Europe and ambassador in Latin America. Stiller presents a balanced assessment of this career, judiciously highlighting the strengths and weaknesses in Messersmith’s personality and diplomatic service. Stiller’s study is a most rewarding one that breaks new ground in revealing what US policy looked like on the international scene in Europe and Latin America during the 1930s and into the Cold War... [a] judicious assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of Messersmith’s contribution to US diplomacy.” — Thomas R. Maddux, The International History Review
“Stiller’s carefully crafted book is useful in a number of ways... This book also provides an interesting insight into the workings of American diplomacy ‘of the second rank’, and for that very reason, enables the reader to see clearly the practical and ideological framework within which a not-unimportant US diplomat worked... an insightful and useful study.” — Ian Roxborough, Journal of Latin American Studies
“[U]sing Messersmith’s ‘enlightened pragmatism’ toward Latin America as his reference point, Stiller paints an interesting picture of what Messersmith perceived as both the promise and the problems of Franklin Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy. The promise, for Messersmith, was contained in the free enterprise system and democracy, both of which would bring development and justice to Latin America. Unlike some of his colleagues, however, Messersmith (and Roosevelt) believed that these ideas could not be forced on the Latin Americans, but that the United States should encourage and aid them in developing their own formulas... Stiller has some interesting things to say (especially when dealing with US-Mexican relations), and his portrayal of the inner workings (and malfunctions) of the US policymaking bureaucracy are often fascinating.” — Michael L. Krenn, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs
“Jesse H. Stiller has given us a long-overdue biography of a career diplomat whose insistence in pursuing goals of equity and justice frequently set the State Department bureaucrats on their collective ear.” — Ralph F. de Bedts, The American Historical Review