By Mari A. Firkatian
Published by University Press of America in 2008
This book chronicles a family of diplomats who experienced the world in transition. Subjects of capricious fate, they forged a destiny as a family that overcame some of the most cataclysmic events of the twentieth century. Diplomats and Dreamers is a family biography that begins with the careers of the parents in 1887 and ends with the death of Nadejda Stancioff, their eldest child, in 1957.
The context of historical developments in an uncertain period of European history highlights their lives. Members of the haute bourgeoisie, this accomplished family is noteworthy for an
unflagging ability to survive and persist with success and grace.
Furthermore, this book addresses issues of gender by using the careers of the Stancioff women as exemplars of how a woman could develop her life in an atmosphere of strict gender divisions in labor. The Stancioff women's way of fitting into the mainstream of elite society is yet another model of a new generation of women who stepped beyond the narrow expectations of what their gender could achieve.
Based on unexplored, unpublished primary materials, this book enriches both women's history and European history.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part I: A Bulgarian Diplomat and a French Courtier
• 1 Mass Culture and Politics\
• 2 The Young Family
• 3 Growing Up
• 4 Wars and More Wars
Part II: A Second Generation of Diplomats
• 5 Growing Up Fast: World War
• 6 The Disillusionments of Peacetime
• 7 International Kid to First Woman Diplomat
• 8 Admirable English
• 9 The End of an Era
Epilogue
Bibliography
Map
Index
About the Author