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Awards
About the Author
CHRIS GOLDTHWAIT was U.S. ambassador to Chad, from 1999 to 2004. Previously, he had been general sales manager for the Foreign Agricultural Service and also served tours in Germany and Nigeria. He holds degrees from American University and Harvard’s Kennedy School.
Since late 2004, Goldthwait has had his own consulting business, focusing on agricultural policy and international agriculture. He was principal author of Modernizing America’s Food and Farm Policy: Vision for a New Direction, the report of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Agricultural Task Force. The plot of his 2002 novel Salvation Is a Homecoming was adapted from Joseph Campbell’s hero myth analysis.
AMBASSADOR TO A SMALL WORLD: Letters from Chad
Christopher E. GoldthwaitVellum, 2015
440 Pages, 38 photos
ISBN 978-0-9864353-6-2 Paperback
ISBN 978-0-9864353-7-9 Hardcover
$40.00 Hardcover
For BULK ORDERS, order directly from New Academia Publishing.
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About the Author
CHRIS GOLDTHWAIT was U.S. ambassador to Chad, from 1999 to 2004. Previously, he had been general sales manager for the Foreign Agricultural Service and also served tours in Germany and Nigeria. He holds degrees from American University and Harvard’s Kennedy School.
Since late 2004, Goldthwait has had his own consulting business, focusing on agricultural policy and international agriculture. He was principal author of Modernizing America’s Food and Farm Policy: Vision for a New Direction, the report of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Agricultural Task Force. The plot of his 2002 novel Salvation Is a Homecoming was adapted from Joseph Campbell’s hero myth analysis.
About the book
Ambassador to a Small World is a highly personal portrait of Chad from the vantage point of Christopher Goldthwait, the longest-serving U.S. ambassador to N’Djamena. The book comprises his perceptive reflections on the country and its people. It touches on U.S. foreign policy, foreign aid, and the life of the small American community in one of the continent’s most isolated countries. And it examines sharp contrasts within Chad and between Chad and the United States.
Originating as a series of monthly letters to a dozen close friends, the book preserves the epistolary format, with the letters grouped into topical chapters. Much of the book is a travelogue, describing 25,000 miles of travel, of which 15,000 were overland, to nearly every corner of Chad. What began as descriptive quickly became analytical and reflective. The insights of the letters remains current.
This is a book in the ADST-DACOR Memoirs and Occasional Papers Series.
To order from ADST email: admin@adst.org
Praise
“Christopher Goldthwait, accomplished diplomat and agricultural economist, is a gifted practitioner of the forgotten art of letter writing. Graceful, funny, and brimming with insights, these sketches from his stint as ambassador to Chad wonderfully capture this ‘small’ but enthralling world.”
—MARC WALL, former U.S. ambassador to Chad
“Ambassador to a Small World paints a dynamic picture of Chad’s geography, history, politics, and economy…. Recommended reading for all FSOs assigned to Chad and similar African posts.”
—MATTIE SHARPLESS, U.S. ambassador to the Central African Republic 2001–2002
“Chris Goldthwait’s letters from Chad offer an intriguing commentary—and fascinating travel chronicle—by an experienced observer on the challenges facing a developing country.”
—MICHAEL B. SMITH, U.S. ambassador (retired)