Page "Albert Sorel" Paragraph 2

Anxious to understand present as well as past events, he was above all a student.

In 1870 he was chosen as secretary by M. de Chaudordy, who had been sent to Tours as a delegate in charge of the diplomatic side of the problem of national defence.

He proved a most valuable collaborator, full of finesse, good temper, and excellent judgment, and at the same time hard-working and discreet.

After the war, when Emile Boutmy founded the Ecole libre des sciences politiques ( which later became the Institut d ' Etudes Politiques de Paris or, as it is more widely known, Sciences Po ).

Sorel was appointed to teach diplomatic history ( 1872 ), a duty which he performed with striking success.

Some of his courses were converted into books: Le traité de Paris du 20 novembre 1815 ( 1873 ); Histoire diplomatique de la guerre franco-allemande ( 1875 ); and the Précis du droit des gens which he published ( 1877 ) in collaboration with his colleague Theodore Funck-Brentano.