In the time of the 'Great Powers', Stratford Canning served as British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during several long missions throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. He was a prominent figure in major diplomatic episodes of the period, including during the Napoleonic Wars, the negotiation of Greek independence, and the Crimean War. Canning witnessed and documented pivotal events of Ottoman politics, and for decades he supported the Tanzimat, the Ottoman reform movement. His name became synonymous across Europe with the so-called Eastern Question, the Powers' competition for leverage in the Levant. In The Voice of England In the East, Steven Richmond reconstructs the imperial objectives and diplomatic practices of the period; and depicts the characters, customs and scenes of Konstantinyye, Ottoman Constantinople. Based upon Canning's personal archive, British and Ottoman diplomatic records, newspaper accounts, correspondence and memoirs, the result is an original study of East-West relations and a novel portrait of empire at the dawn of the industrial era. Book jacket.