On Moses and Joshua

pp. 165-183

in: Arie M. Dubnov, Isaiah Berlin, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Abstract

"Outstanding esprit de corps." This was how Sir George H. Middleton, second secretary of the British Embassy in Washington, remembered the atmosphere that he encountered upon his arrival at the new unit he was transferred to in 1944.¹ Dean Acheson, assistant secretary of state under Roosevelt, was also impressed. Despite its huge size—constituted by around 9,000 British citizens by 1945—the Brits' Washington Embassy appeared to him as a "most efficiently organized unit and over this the policy and orders of Halifax were perfectly understood and always prevailed."² The fact that many brilliant young literati were drafted to it, including All Souls fellows such as John Foster, Roger Makins, Harold Brand, Arthur Salter, and Denis Rickett, contributed much to this unique atmosphere. For Berlin this was the closest thing to a home away from home, at least in the social sense.