The Foreign Service Journal, October 2011

38 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 OF RELATED INTEREST A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS Jennet Conant, Simon & Schuster, 2011, $28, hardcover, 416 pages. Julia Child is best known for her finesse in the kitchen. But in ACovert Affair , author Jennet Co- nant explores Julia’s life before her famed television show, from the time she joined the Of- fice of Strategic Services as a clerk through her marriage to fellowOSS employee Paul Child, who later joined the Foreign Service. The McCarthy era provides a dramatic backdrop for the book, which opens with Paul traveling to Washing- ton for what he expects is a promotion, only to discover that he is being investigated for communist ties. Jennet Conant is also the author of The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Wash- ington (Simon & Schuster, 2008) and Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II (Simon & Schus- ter, 2002). United States Protocol: The Guide to Official Diplomatic Etiquette Mary Mel French, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2010, $44.95, hardcover, 472 pages. In United States Protocol , for- mer Chief of Protocol Mary French has written a thorough, easy-to-use guide to diplomatic eti- quette. The book provides both formal and candid advice for everyone from advance team members to ambassadors, and covers a wide variety of situations. Practical examples are given to help demonstrate successful practices and to offer inspiration. Mary French was chief of protocol for President Bill Clinton. She entered the U.S. protocol office in 1993 as assistant chief of protocol for visits. Before that she was administrative director of the Clinton for President Campaign. The Politics of Protection: The Limits of Humanitarian Action Elizabeth G. Ferris, Brookings Institution Press, 2011, $32.95, paperback, 380 pages. In recent years the practice of humanitarian action has evolved beyond assisting those endangered by conflict or disaster to protect- ing them from further danger and loss in the aftermath. In The Politics of Protection , Elizabeth Ferris has pro- duced a detailed and absorbing analysis of the increasing dangers and emerging inconsistencies in humanitarian work, its limitations and their implications for the future. Her compelling narrative demonstrates the inade- quacies of current protection models to meet the loom- ing crises of climate change, mass displacement, and changes in the scale and practice of conflict. Now a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies program at the Brookings Institution and co-director of the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement, Ms. Ferris spent more than two decades working in hu- manitarian assistance. She is also an adjunct associate professor at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and is a prolific contributor to academic and pol- icy journals. Encyclopedia of Media and Propaganda in Wartime America Martin J. Manning & Clarence R. Wyatt, eds., ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2010, $180, hardcover, 860 pages (in two volumes). Comprising the contributions of at least 14 scholars, this two-vol- ume set offers a detailed and very accessible overview of American wartime reportage and propaganda. Encyclopedia of Media and Propaganda in Wartime America details media responses, public opin- ion and official policy regarding wartime events from the North American colonial wars and the American Revo- lution through our present conflicts in the Middle East. (See the September FSJ for a full review.) The books are organized in chronological chapters highlighting specific wars or designated periods of con- flict and the people, events and publications relevant to C OVER S TORY OF RELATED INTEREST