Susanna Erlandsson's Personal Politics in the Postwar World is edifying and engaging in its research, narrative, and analysis. It neatly sheds new light on the role of personal politics within western post-war diplomacy and begins to fill a significant gap in recognising diplomatic wives' roles in diplomacy after World War I… Any scholar of western diplomacy, particularly those interested in women's experiences in the post-war period, will find this a fascinating read.

Cultural and Social History

Susanna Erlandsson in Personal Politics in the Postwar World: Western Diplomacy behind the Scenes mixes a biographical microstudy with original new insights in the importance of the history of the everyday and the links between the political and the private sphere in diplomatic history.

Diplomatica

[This timely contribution] provides important insights into various dimensions of gendered diplomatic cultures … With an eye for detail, careful, and respectful writing about highly personal matters, and a reflexive and rich analysis, Erlandsson argues that if we want to fully understand Western diplomacy in the post-war period, 'we need to pay attention ... to the classed, gendered and racialized practices that governed it'.

Emma Rosengren, Stockholm University, Sweden, Journal of Contemporary History

This superb study demonstrates to the full the value of delving into all aspects of the diplomatic life-world in order to gain a more complete appreciation and understanding of how diplomacy 'works'. The attention to detail is admirable, and the critical judgement is subtle and evident throughout. A wonderful book that looks at first glance like a straightforward diplomatic biography but that actually delivers a far more complex analysis to re-assess diplomatic history and practice in one go.

Giles Scott Smith, Roosevelt Chair in New Diplomatic History, RIAS/Leiden University, The Netherlands

Susanna Erlandsson offers a fascinating portrait of diplomats as fully rounded human beings, showing why and how spouses, cooks, entertaining, dress, and much more are an integral part of international affairs. Personal Politics in the Postwar World will be an essential reference for anyone interested in the art of diplomacy.

Barbara Keys, Professor of History, Durham University, UK

Placing the heterosexual couple – the diplomat and his wife – at the center of mid-century Western diplomacy, Erlandsson provides a superb account of just how integral the diplomatic home, food and family were for diplomatic interactions. A must read for anyone interested in the gendered, racialized and classed micro-foundations of diplomacy.

Ann Towns, Professor of Political Science and Head of GenDip, University of Gothenburg, Sweden