A life of Sir Harry Parkes : British minister to Japan, China and Korea, 1865-1885

Bibliographic Information

A life of Sir Harry Parkes : British minister to Japan, China and Korea, 1865-1885

by Robert Morton

Renaissance Books, 2021

  • : hardback

Available at  / 5 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-280) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Harry Parkes was at the heart of Britain's relations with the Far East from the start of his working life at fourteen, to his death at fifty-seven. Orphaned at the age of five, he went to China on his own as a child and worked his way to the top. God-fearing and fearless, he believed his mission was to bring trade and 'civilisation' to East Asia. In his day, he was seen as both a hero and a monster and is still bitterly resented in China for his part in the country's humiliations at Western hands, but largely esteemed in Japan for helping it to industrialise. Morton's new biography, the first in over thirty years, and benefiting in part from access to the Parkes' family and archives, offers a more intimate and informed profile of the personal and professional life of a Victorian titan and one of Britain's most undiplomatic diplomats in the history of the British Civil Service.

Table of Contents

Plate section faces page 142 Preface Introduction List of Illustrations 1 'Watch Therefore for Ye Knows Not' Birmingham, 1828-1841 2 'A Sharp Intelligent Lad' Macao - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Nanjing, 1841-184 3 'Not Sufficient to Satisfy Me' Zhoushan (Chusan) - Guangzhou (Canton), 1842-1843 4 'Here I Am Now Perfectly Alone' Amoy (Xiamen), 1844-1845 5 'A Continuous Settled Life Has No Charms for Me' Fuzhou - Shanghai, 1845-184 6 'I Saw a Good Deal' India - Britain, 1849-1851 7 'I Distinctly Declined to Accede' Formosa - Guangzhou, 1851-1854 8 'Hasty Love-making' Bangkok - London - Bangkok, 1855-1856 9 'It Is the Cause of the West Against the East' Guangzhou, 1856-1857 10 'Never Sparing Himself in Any Way' Guangzhou, 1857-1860 11 'The Executioner Stood by with Uplifted Sword' Beijing, 1860 12 'I Do Not at All Like Being in a Great Man's Train' Nanjing - Hankou (Wuhan) - Shanghai, 1860-1862 13 Sir Harry Parkes Britain, 1862-1864 14 'The Drudgery of the Service' Shanghai, 1864-1865 15 'The Appointment is Particularly Gratifying to Me' Yokohama, 1865-1866 16 'The Most Superior Japanese Osaka - West Coast - Nagasaki - Mt. Fuji, 1867 17 The Meiji Restoration Osaka - Kyoto - Tokyo, 1868 18 'We of Course Hope for Improvement' Tokyo, 1869-1871 19 'This is Becoming Civilised with a Vengeance Britain,1871-1873 20 'I Arrived Too Late' Tokyo - Britain, 1874-1881 21 'I Am Deeply Sensible of the Services You Have Rendered' Tokyo, 1882-188 22 'The Last Semi-civilised State' Seoul, 1883 23 'I Can Find No Rest' Beijing, 1884-1885 Epilogue Bibliography Acknowledgements Notes Index

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