Bridges, Peter
PETER BRIDGES is a retired Foreign Service officer who served as ambassador to Somalia (1984–1986), with earlier postings in Panama, Moscow, Prague, Rome, and Washington over three decades. His post–Foreign Service career has included the Una Chapman Cox Foundation, Shell Oil Company, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. His other books include Safirka: An American Envoy, about his time as ambassador in Mogadishu, and Pen of Fire: John Moncure Daniel, 1825–1865, a biography of the most influential Confederate editor during the Civil War. Bridges holds degrees from Dartmouth College and Columbia University and has published more than seventy articles and essays, chiefly on history and foreign affairs.
Donn Piatt (1819–1891) was a celebrated diplomat, historian, journalist, judge, lawyer, legislator, lobbyist, novelist, playwright, poet, well-known humorist, and consummate Washington insider. Having served as an American diplomat in France in the 1850s, he had a strong and influential interest in foreign affairs. After the Civil War, Piatt became famous...