Anson Burlingame: A Bridge of One

The only person in history to have formally represented both the United States and China.In 1862, Lincoln appointed Anson Burlingame as the first American minister to reside in Beijing. Six years later, the Qing government appointed him as China's first diplomatic envoy to the Western powers. He led a mission of Chinese officials, a British secretary, and a French interpreter across the Pacific and the Atlantic, through Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, and St. Petersburg, negotiating the first treaty to recognize Chinese sovereignty — before dying far from home at forty-nine.Drawing extensively on the diary of Zhigang, the Chinese deputy envoy, and other Chinese-language sources never before integrated into an English-language biography, this book tells Burlingame's story from a Chinese perspective. He was not merely a well-meaning idealist — he accepted a potentially fatal duel in defense of a beaten colleague, persuaded China to ban enemy warships without a single gunship of his own, and knew how to translate ideals into the language of interest before Bismarck.Goodwill led him to make these choices. Courage and wisdom allowed him to carry them out nearly as well as anyone could have. Read more