A Life of Sir Harry Parkes: Interpreter and Consul in China and British Minister to Japan, China and Korea, 1841-1885

Robert Morton

doi:10.1017/9781912961177

Online ordering is currently unavailable due to technical issues. We apologise for any delays responding to customers while we resolve this. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident

Skip to main content Accessibility help

Home
Books
A Life of Sir Harry Parkes

A Life of Sir Harry Parkes

Interpreter and Consul in China and British Minister to Japan, China and Korea, 1841-1885

- Get access
  
  Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
  
  Log in Register

Robert Morton

Publisher:: Amsterdam University Press
Online publication date:: May 2022
Print publication year:: 2020
Online ISBN:: 9781912961177
DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781912961177

Subjects:: East Asian History, Area Studies, Asian Studies, History

Export citation

Information

Contents

Metrics

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 benefitting 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.

- Aa Reduce text
- Aa Enlarge text

View selected items
Save to my bookmarks
Export citations
Download PDF (zip)
Save to Kindle
Save to Dropbox
Save to Google Drive
Save content to
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to .

To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Please be advised that item(s) you selected are not available.
You are about to save
Your Kindle email address

Please provide your Kindle email.

@free.kindle.com @kindle.com (service fees apply)

By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services

Metrics

Total number of HTML views: 0

Total number of PDF views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

Total views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

A Life of Sir Harry Parkes

Interpreter and Consul in China and British Minister to Japan, China and Korea, 1841-1885

Book description

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-vi

Preface
pp vii-x

Introduction
pp xi-xvi

List of Illustrations
pp xvii-xviii

1 - ‘Watch Therefore for Ye Knows Not’: Birmingham, 1828–1841
pp 1-9

2 - ‘A Sharp Intelligent Lad’: Macao – Hong Kong – Shanghai – Nanjing, 1841–1842
pp 10-22

3 - ‘Not Sufficient to Satisfy Me’: Zhoushan (Chusan) – Guangzhou (Canton), 1842–1843
pp 23-28

4 - ‘Here I Am Now Perfectly Alone’: Amoy (Xiamen), 1844–1845
pp 29-36

5 - ‘A Continuous Settled Life Has No Charms for Me’: Fuzhou – Shanghai, 1845–1849
pp 37-44

6 - ‘I Saw a Good Deal’: India – Britain, 1849–1851
pp 45-48

7 - ‘I Distinctly Declined to Accede’: Formosa – Guangzhou, 1851–1854
pp 49-56

8 - ‘Hasty Love-making’: Bangkok – London – Bangkok, 1855–1856
pp 57-72

9 - ‘It Is the Cause of the West Against the East’: Guangzhou, 1856–1857
pp 73-82

10 - ‘Never Sparing Himself in Any Way’: Guangzhou, 1857–1860
pp 83-95

11 - ‘The Executioner Stood by with Uplifted Sword’: Beijing, 1860
pp 96-107

12 - ‘I Do Not at All Like Being in a Great Man’s Train’: Nanjing – Hankou (Wuhan) – Shanghai, 1860–1862
pp 108-117

13 - Sir Harry Parkes: Britain, 1862–1864
pp 118-122

14 - ‘The Drudgery of the Service’: Shanghai, 1864–1865
pp 123-127

15 - ‘The Appointment is Particularly Gratifying to Me’: Yokohama, 1865–1866
pp 128-143

16 - ‘The Most Superior Japanese’: Osaka – West Coast – Nagasaki – Mt. Fuji, 1867
pp 144-157

17 - The Meiji Restoration: Osaka – Kyoto – Tokyo, 1868
pp 158-176

18 - ‘We of Course Hope for Improvement’: Tokyo, 1869–1871
pp 177-196

19 - ‘This is Becoming Civilised with a Vengeance: Britain,1871–1873
pp 197-204

20 - ‘I Arrived Too Late’: Tokyo – Britain, 1874–1881
pp 205-223

21 - ‘I Am Deeply Sensible of the Services You Have Rendered’: Tokyo, 1882–1883
pp 224-233

22 - ‘The Last Semi-civilised State’: Seoul, 1883
pp 234-244

23 - ‘I Can Find No Rest’: Beijing, 1884–1885
pp 245-256

Epilogue
pp 257-266

Bibliography
pp 267-280

Metrics

Full text views

Book summary page views

A Life of Sir Harry Parkes

Interpreter and Consul in China and British Minister to Japan, China and Korea, 1841-1885

Book description

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Save Search

Contents

Metrics

Full text views

Book summary page views