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INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

2
 FOURTH EDITION

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues

Sheldon Anderson
MIAMI UNIVERSITY

Mark Allen Peterson

MIAMI UNIVERSITY

Stanley W. Toops
MIAMI UNIVERSITY

3
First published 2018 by Westview Press

Published 2018 by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © 2018 by Taylor & Francis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.

Every effort has been made to secure required permissions for all text, images, maps, and other art reprinted in this volume.

Interior print design by Trish Wilkinson

Set in 11 point Goudy Old Style by Cynthia Young

A CIP catalog record for the print version of this book is available from the Library of Congress

ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-5049-3 (pbk)

4
 Contents

Preface

Introduction

PART ONE
THE DISCIPLINES OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

1 The Past in the Present: Historical Interpretation in International Conflict

What Is History?
Historians and Their Tools
Politics, Power, and History
History and International Conflicts
What Is Good History?
Theories of History
Are There Lessons of History?
Conclusion
References
Further Reading

2 Peoples, Places, and Patterns: Geography in International Studies

What Is Geography?
Development of Geography
Components of Geography
Maps: Tools for International Studies
Conclusion
References
Further Reading

3 Anthropology and Intercultural Relations

Cultural Misunderstandings in an International Milieu
What Is Culture?
Levels of Culture
Intercultural Relations
Studying Culture: The Anthropological Perspective
Conclusion
Notes
References
Further Reading

4 Economics and International Development

What Is Economics?
Liberal Economics
Economic Nationalism
Marxism
Microeconomics and Macroeconomics
Development Economics
Globalization
Non-Western Economics
Sustainability
Conclusion
References

5
 Further Reading

5 Power, Conflict, and Policy: The Role of Political Science in International Studies
What Is Political Science
Comparative Politics
International Politics
Conclusion
References
Further Reading

PART TWO
INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL TOPICS

6 North America and International Studies

A Brief History of the United States in the World
Global Challenges for the United States
The United States in the World Economy: Too Big to Fail
The American Dream
Canada and the World
Geography, Trade, and the Globalization of North America
Transforming the Environment
Timeline of Modern North American History
References
Further Reading

7 Europe and the Modern World

What Is Europe?
Europe’s Slow Progress Toward Liberal Democracy
From the Scourge of National Conflict to the European Union
The Terrorist Threat in Europe
The Role of Europe in the World
Timeline of Modern European History
References
Further Reading

8 East Asia, the Pacific, and International Studies: Demography and Development
Introduction: Why Study East Asia and the Pacific?
Geographical Dimensions
Historical Trends
Cultural Complexities
Economic Impact
Political Tensions
Demographic Issues
Asian Economic Development
The Role of East Asia in the World
Timeline of Modern East Asian and Pacific History
References
Further Reading

9 South and Central Asia and International Studies: Environment and Population
Introduction: Why Study South and Central Asia?
Geographical Realities
Historical Challenges
Cultural Complexities
Economic Opportunities
Political Risks
The Silk Road
Demographic Issues

6
 Environmental Challenges in India
Political Ecology in South and Central Asia
The Future of India
Asia Matters: Global Connections
Timeline of Modern South and Central Asia
References
Further Reading

10 Sub-Saharan Africa and the International Community

African Geography and Culture
Africa in World History
Challenges to African Political and Economic Development
African State Building and Global Economic Integration: The Cases of Nigeria and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo
Africa and Globalization: Relations with the United States, Europe, and Asia
African Prospects
Timeline of Modern African History
References
Further Reading

11 The Middle East and North Africa

The Middle of Where?
From Past to Present
Diversity and Division
From Empires to Nation-States
The Richest and the Poorest
The Problem of Palestine
Political Turmoil in the Middle East
Middle East Prospects
Timeline of Modern Middle Eastern History
Notes
References
Further Reading

12 Latin America
What Is Latin America?
A Shared History
Latin American Economic Development
Latin America’s Path to Democracy
Latin America’s Future
Timeline of Modern Latin American History
References
Further Reading

PART THREE
CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ISSUES

13 International Terrorism

14 The Global Refugee Crisis

15 The Syrian Civil War and the Rise of the Islamic State

16 The Veil Controversy

17 Global Population Projections

18 Global Climate Change

7
19 The Globalization of Modern Sports

Conclusion
Adopting the Interdisciplinary Approach
Solution-Oriented Analysis
Sources of Innovative Solutions
Conclusion
References
Further Reading

Glossary
Index

8
 Preface

International studies (ITS) at Miami University, and at many other colleges and universities, has evolved in recent
years from a branch of political science or world languages into a true interdisciplinary approach to current global
affairs. Through the vision of Dean Stephen Day and ITS Director William Hazleton in the early 1990s, the ITS
program at Miami expanded its curriculum and hired new faculty members with joint appointments in ITS and
geography, history, anthropology, and political science. The ITS program now serves hundreds of majors, and
over five hundred non-majors take the ITS introductory course every year.
The ITS faculty had difficulty finding suitable readings to accompany the unique interdisciplinary approach of
the introductory course. Some years ago, we decided to write a text that mirrors the structure of the course and
emphasizes an interdisciplinary analysis of issues of regional and global importance. The first half of the course,
and the first part of this book, covers the way each discipline—history, geography, anthropology, economics, and
political science—contributes to understanding and solving world problems. Part Two examines various regions of
the world—North America, Europe, East Asia and the Pacific, South and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the
Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America—while stressing the diversity within the regions and the
interconnections among them. Part Three includes essays that analyze contemporary global issues through an
interdisciplinary lens. These can be used for discussion coinciding with Part Two of the book.
The authors recognize that the interdisciplinary nature of international studies will draw teachers from various
areas of expertise into unfamiliar academic realms. This book is designed to give them a construct with which to
teach international studies and an approach to enhance students’ understanding of the complexities of the modern
world.
This is the fourth edition of the book. The new edition features up-todate information on each region of the
world and new global issues chapters in Part Three. Each chapter is accompanied by a map and a list of
recommended readings, films, and websites. There is a glossary of keywords, which appear in bold throughout the
text.
The text also comes with an online teacher’s manual, including course objectives, syllabi, and assignments that
have proven effective in the classroom over many years. Please visit westviewpress.com/international-studies-
instructor-resources.
The authors of the text have published extensively in their respective disciplines, and each has a different
regional and linguistic expertise. Dr. Sheldon Anderson has written several articles and three books on Cold War
history, including a study of Warsaw Pact relations and another on U.S. containment policy. Dr. Anderson also
wrote a book on the politics and culture of modern sports. He wrote the introduction, the chapters on history,
Europe, and Africa, and two global issues chapters on the refugee crisis and sports and politics. Dr. Stanley Toops
is one of the foremost U.S. geographers of the Uyghur region of northwest China. He is fluent in Chinese and
conversant in Uyghur, and he has written articles and chapters on geography, tourism, and population in China
and Central Asia. Recent works include an atlas of Central Eurasia and an edited collection on China. Dr. Toops
wrote the chapters on geography, East Asia, South Asia, and the essays on climate change and population. Dr.
Mark Allen Peterson has published groundbreaking work on Middle Eastern and South Asian media and
globalization. He is fluent in Arabic. Dr. Peterson authored the conclusion and the chapters on anthropology and
the Middle East, and contributed to the economics chapter as well as the essays on veiling, international terrorism,
and the Syrian civil war and rise of the Islamic State (IS).
The authors owe a debt of gratitude to many people. We would like to thank our colleagues in International
Studies at Miami, Melanie Ziegler, Carl Dahlman, Charles Stevens, Kathryn LaFever, Dilchoda Berdieva, and Ted
Holland for their suggestions on updating the book. Stanley Toops would like to thank Simone Andrus for her
contributions to his chapters, and students Daniel Kyale, Kristy Fortman, Adanma Ogboo, Hannah Koonce, Ana
Contessa, Lisa Dershowitz, and Michael Browne for their work on the maps and tables. Sheldon Anderson would
like to thank his family—Kristie, O Maxwell, Lauren, and Mongo—for their patience and support as he worked
on this edition of the book. In addition to his coauthors, Mark Allen Peterson would like to thank James Bielo,
John Cinnamon, Cameron Hay-Rollins, Linda Marchant, Geoff Owens, Susan Paulson, Dawna Peterson,
Douglas Rogers, Christa Salamandra, Daniel Varisco, and Jessica Winegar for their comments on various drafts of
chapters, and Lisa Suter for her work on the teacher’s manual. Miami University’s GIS coordinator, Robbyn
Abbitt, edited the maps.

9
10
 Introduction

Why do international studies? Why take an interdisciplinary approach to global issues? The answers are found in
the increasing interdependence of people, nations, and institutions at all levels of human society. Five hundred
years ago, Europeans explored the Western Hemisphere and broadened their commercial contacts with Africa and
Asia, beginning this gradual globalization process of bringing regions of the world together. The Industrial
Revolution in the nineteenth century and the high-tech revolution in the late twentieth century have brought
many of us to the point today where a phone call is possible between someone riding a train in Peru and a climber
standing atop Mount Everest. An Indian doctor can read an X-ray for a patient sitting in a physician’s office in
Topeka. A Russian can buy a car built in South Korea, Germany, Italy, Japan, or the United States. Although
most people in the world could not locate Bangladesh on a map, the cap they wear might have been made there.
Never before has the world been so integrated. Politics, markets, culture, the media, and information are no
longer local but global. The ripple effect of local events on wider regions has grown exponentially in the last
century; a century ago events in one part of the world often went unnoticed in another. Today, the proliferation
of information through the Internet, cell phones, print media, and television allows people on opposite sides of the
globe to experience events simultaneously. What happens on Tokyo’s stock exchange has an instantaneous effect
on other markets as they open throughout the day. The extent of the destruction of the tsunami that hit Japan in
2011 and the earthquake that shook Italy in 2016 was known to the world within hours. The effects of terrorist
attacks are amplified because the media disseminate the chaos of the moment and engender the fear that follows.
Suicide attackers often make videos for posting on the Internet after they have struck, which maximizes the sense
that these murderers will stop at nothing to claim innocent people’s lives. Beginning in 2011, the so-called Arab
Spring of pro-democratic revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, among others, was spurred on by Internet and cell
phone connections, as was the growth of the Islamic State (IS) in northern Syria and Iraq.
The boom in world commerce since World War II is unprecedented. World exports totaled $61 billion in
1950, expanding to $25 trillion by 2015. In 1960 trade amounted to 17.5 percent of the world’s GDP. In 2015
the percentage had grown to forty-five percent (el-Ojeili and Hayden 2006, 60; World Bank 2016). International
financial and business transactions happen instantaneously on electronic networks. The possibility of a default by
the Greek government in 2011 sent shock waves through international markets. Millions of foreign workers send
money home using secure global-banking services. Products move around the world on airplanes, ships, trains,
and long-range trucks, often without human hands touching the containers. There are about 100,000 airplane
departures from approximately 9,000 different airports daily and over 60,000 large merchant vessels plying the
high seas (www.marinetraffic.com).
The ramifications of globalization on traditional political, economic, and social relationships are profound.
Journalist Thomas Friedman titled one of his books The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization to
capture the conflicts in the interconnected world economy. The Lexus represents the boons that a globalized
economy offers individuals across the world—the potential for wealth and the products and services coming from
all corners of the earth. The olive tree represents the pressures such an economy puts on traditional local societies
and communities, including not only low wages and poverty experienced by too many in this modern age but also
the decline of traditional beliefs, practices, and cultures. Even those who seek to conserve old beliefs and values
embrace the new technologies. Friedman shows a devout Jew in Israel holding up his cell phone to the Western
Wall in Jerusalem so a friend in France can say a prayer at this holy site. Some no doubt feel that the friend should
make the trek rather than rely on high tech (Friedman 2000, 29).
This increasing interdependence is usually called globalization, an “intensification of worldwide social relations
which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away
and vice versa” (Giddens 1990, 64). Weapons of mass destruction, global climate change, interconnected and
fragile trade and financial systems, armed conflict, burgeoning populations, humanitarian crises, and global
poverty are among the many international problems that demand the attention of scholars, policymakers, and
citizens. Never before has it been so important to find solutions to these problems, and never have these complex
issues been harder to grasp. An interdisciplinary approach is essential to fully understanding the historical,
geographical, political, cultural, and economic dimensions of these global challenges.
The authors contend that the complexities of the modern age and the interconnectedness of global people,
events, and processes are so strong that a break from traditional methods of research and inquiry is required.
Foreign-policy makers and educators are becoming increasingly aware of the deficiencies of strict disciplinary

11
approaches to the globalization processes and international affairs today. By disciplinary we mean approaches
connected to the traditional academic disciplines of history, political science, economics, geography, and
anthropology. Instead, international studies offers an integrative, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary approach to
issues of global importance.
This book breaks new ground by introducing five disciplines applicable to international studies and addressing
regional and global issues through an interdisciplinary approach. Four of the five disciplines considered here are
social sciences, whereas the fifth, history, tends to fall in the humanities. This is because history does not pretend
to be a science. Rather it is the study of past events based on available primary and secondary sources. Professional
historians make a good-faith attempt to gather reliable evidence and render the past accurately, but they
understand that history is controversial because no two accounts of the past are the same. Historians’
interpretations of the past depend on their own biases, the availability of sources, their use of those sources, and
their objectives. Since there is no definitive historical truth, the lessons of history tend to be subjective as well.
Nonetheless, a complete understanding of current international affairs is impossible without knowing the
historical context. Historians play a vital role in resolving international conflicts by writing objective historical
accounts free of polemic and propaganda. But the advent of the internet and the rapid flow of information from
sources of dubious reliability have created new challenges. Different memories or interpretations of past events are
at the heart of many international conflicts. For example, the controversy between the United Nations and Iran
over Tehran’s quest for nuclear power has its roots in Iran’s resentment of British imperialism and U.S.
intervention in Iran’s domestic affairs during the Cold War. And Japanese-Chinese friction often revolves around
the brutal Japanese occupation of China during World War II. At the heart of these tensions is the way historical
memory is manipulated to create a national identity. Some Chinese view the Japanese as imperialists, whereas
some Japanese remember themselves as progressives and missionaries who brought the benefits of civilization to a
supposedly backward people.
Geography’s role in international studies is to analyze space, regions, and environments. The physical
geographer studies the processes of the natural environment; the human geographer is concerned with human
interaction with the physical world. Geographers’ evidence includes demographic statistics, climate studies, health
records, and communication networks. The map is a special tool that geographers use in their analyses of the earth
and people’s interactions with it.
Geographic study goes to the heart of such international problems as population density, the spread of disease,
water shortages, environmental degradation, border conflicts, population flows, use of space, and transportation
networks. Hundreds of millions of migrants annually move from one region to another, millions even making
leaps from one continent to another, bringing new customs, expectations, and political agendas. Diseases, blights,
and bugs travel on the thousands of ships, airplanes, trains, and automobiles moving around the globe daily.
Delicate regional ecologies are subject to alien invaders that hitch rides on long-distance transports. The world
waits on edge for invisible strains of flu, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and other deadly diseases transferred on the
global highways. Global warming, water and air pollution, soil erosion, and desertification know no political
boundaries and are best understood through geography’s contribution to an interdisciplinary analysis.
Political science analyzes the power relationships between peoples and the institutions used to mediate their
competing interests. Political scientists often employ case studies to identify the variables that explain political
behavior, trying to determine if past models are applicable to present cases. Questions of international import are
ultimately tied to those who have the power to solve them. Democratic development, international institutions,
international relations, and international conflict and conflict resolution are within the purview of political science
as it relates to international studies.
Some political scientists have moved from paradigms that seemed to explain international power relationships
in the past, such as hegemony and dependence theory, to complex interdependence, which the interdisciplinary
approach of international studies seeks to explain. Political relationships are more complicated today because
globalization has created greater “power for the powerless” (Havel 1985). For example, international human-rights
organizations and the media can disseminate information on a government’s political practices that is difficult to
control. The Chinese regime is desperately trying to regulate internet sites that criticize its undemocratic practices.
Political scientists are keenly interested in whether China can maintain political repression while participating in a
globalized economy.
The global information network can also undermine the power of liberal democratic governments, which can
be criticized for the influence of money in politics, the disparity between rich and poor, and racial discrimination.
Easy access to information also foments identity politics, which can divide societies into cultural or political
groups that oppose each other and make democratic compromise and cooperation nearly impossible. The street
protests in Egypt in 2013 attest to the power of social media to rally supporters. Internet commerce also
undermines national legal systems. For example, it is illegal in Germany to sell Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, but it
became one of Amazon.com’s top-ten sellers in Germany in 1999 (Friedman 2000, 37).

12
 Anthropology examines global culture: the similarities and differences of human environments, economic
systems, ideologies, political systems, and languages. People understand and explain the world in different ways,
which helps to explain why people in one society behave differently from those in another. This elusive concept of
culture is a learned system of meanings through which people orient themselves in the world.
Global cultural transfers put pressure on local customs and traditions. Richer countries once dominated these
transfers, but now they go both ways. The world’s consumption of McDonald’s burgers and Hollywood films is
often cited as an example of the effect of globalization on local eating habits and artistic expression, but Indian
Bollywood movies, South Korean cars, the low prices of goods from China, and workers moving from one country
to another are also causing profound challenges to local cultures. Indians may be eating barbecue, but Texans are
eating curry, too. Anthropology urges us to look also at the flip side of globalization—localization—through
which people localize the commodities, services, and ideas that enter their communities from outside,
transforming them and making them their own.
Although some scholars highlight a “clash of civilizations” (Huntington 1996) that globalization engenders,
others argue that the world is actually experiencing an integration of civilizations that brings peoples closer
together. Understanding the cultural elements of behavior is an essential component of a broad international
studies education. In this increasingly mobile world, cultural clashes, cultural sharing, and cultural changes are
happening faster now than ever before.
Economists study the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. International
economics concerns financial relations, trade regimes, and economic development. Economists deal with the most
basic yet most complex problems facing any society. For example, what strategies promote economic growth and
provide for basic human needs and economic opportunities? Are there any fundamental economic rights, such as
medical care, housing, and food?
One of the hot economic debates in the world today pits globalists against economic nationalists. The
globalists, or liberal economists, advocate free and unfettered economic relations between states as a means to
increase the wealth and prosperity of all people in all nations. Some even argue that war is less likely between
open-market economies because the economic costs to an aggressor are too high. Economic nationalists argue that
the world’s free-trade regime lowers wages and causes unemployment for workers in developed economies. They
also point to the increasing economic disparity between the rich and the poor, both within and between countries.
Small businesses in every country struggle to compete against the world’s giant corporations, which can often
provide cheaper goods and services and consistently meet demand at lower cost to the consumer. But in some
industries small businesses may be more nimble at utilizing or inventing productive technologies than bigger
corporations.
The second half of the book introduces seven regions of the world: North America, Europe, East Asia, South
Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Some scholars have criticized the area-studies approach because
Westerners arbitrarily constructed these regional labels. For example, if we think of the so-called Middle East as an
area comprised mainly of Arab peoples, it also has to include northern Africa as well as southwestern Asia. Iran
and Turkey are bookends of the region, but neither of these countries is Arab. Geographically, Russia is both
European and Asian, although its cultural and political heritage comes primarily from the West.
The authors are fully aware of the limitations of a regional approach to international affairs. However, even in
an era of globalization, thinking about the world in terms of geopolitical regions remains useful for several reasons.
First, dividing the world into regions offers a way to manage enormous amounts of information about
environments, people, and social relations. Trying to understand international issues in terms of the over 200
countries in the world and recognized dependent areas—each with its unique history, environment, economy, and
political and cultural systems—is beyond the scope of any scholar or analytical approach. Trying to attend to every
country can lead to a failure to see the forest for the trees.
Second, thinking regionally allows us to aggregate information common to groups of peoples and countries in
order to see big pictures. Each region exhibits some common political, economic, linguistic, religious, or historical
currents. Most Europeans have a Christian heritage, similar cultural norms, and social democratic political
systems. Latin Americans are mostly Catholic, speak either Spanish or Portuguese, have similar economic
challenges, and have struggled to establish stable democracies. Although Westerners devised most of the world’s
continental designations and national borders, peoples in these regions have constructed their regional identities as
well.
The authors have made conscious efforts to illustrate the diversity within the regions as well as their
interconnectedness. There are no walls dividing them, but many bridges linking them together. Globalization
along the electronic highway, sea lanes, rails, and roads has blurred old regional categories. Understanding the
political, economic, historical, geographic, and cultural differences both within and among these areas is the
essence of international studies inquiry.
Thinking about the world regionally can also serve as a useful heuristic device that helps us avoid ethnocentric

13
and region-specific thinking. For example, Americans tend to see issues of global terrorism through the lens of
Islamic terrorism, because this has become particularly important to U.S. national security. By making a point of
looking at international issues in terms of every region, we discover terrorism in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
Terrorism is certainly not a Muslim or Middle Eastern activity, although too much of the Western press might
arrive at that conclusion. Al Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) are not representative of mainstream society in any
Muslim region of the world. That said, terrorist organizations are at the top of the global agenda because of their
responsibility for the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, as well as for the urban bombings in
Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005, and in Paris and Brussels in 2015 and 2016. Islamic anger has also been
blamed for the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh for allegedly defaming Islam and for widespread (and
sometimes violent) demonstrations throughout the Islamic world in reaction to a Danish newspaper’s printing of
satirical cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
Globalization creates a new context within which terrorism—a centuries-old political tool—occurs in the
modern world. Indeed, globalization creates a new context within which all political activity operates. First, events
themselves are publicized instantaneously, repeatedly, and globally. Modern terrorists know that their acts will
gain worldwide attention. Second, all political organizations, including terrorist ones, benefit from the Internet’s
global reach. Personal computers and global networks make fund-raising, recruiting, and disseminating
information easier than ever before. Third, and in a different vein, globalization and technology also give terrorists
and other groups access to points of view different from their own group’s ideology. Finally, law enforcement uses
the instruments of globalization to monitor and capture potential terrorists and other criminals.
Scholars, politicians, and ordinary people have desperately searched for answers to the terrorist threat emanating
from a tiny minority of the fundamentalist Muslim community. A geographer might find answers in the
demographic explosion of an unemployed, frustrated, and angry younger population. A historian might place
terrorism in the continuum of a long history of conflicts between the Middle East and Western imperialists. A
political scientist might approach the problem through the lens of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, illegitimate
borders, or the authoritarian regimes and lack of democracy in the Middle East. An economist might emphasize
the poverty in the Middle East or the region’s frustration with the challenges of modernization and economic
development. An anthropologist might ask what kinds of cultural symbols are employed by terrorist organizations
to recruit people willing to kill and die for a cause—and why these ideologies attract a relatively small number of
people.
International studies, unlike any singular discipline, draws on all of these disciplines in an integrated way for
answers. Twenty-first-century challenges, such as terrorism, sustainable economic development, poverty,
pollution, global warming, nuclear proliferation, human rights, and interstate and civil conflicts do not stop at
national boundaries or disciplinary categories. The notion that any global challenge can be studied or solved with
the lenses and tools of one discipline is outdated. This book aims to help students begin to think in an integrated
and critical way, relying on valuable perspectives from many disciplines but moving beyond disciplinary
boundaries toward complex explanations and understanding.

References
el-Ojeili, Chamsy, and Patrick Hayden. 2006. Critical Theories of Globalization. New York: Palgrave.
Friedman, Thomas. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization. New York: Anchor Books.
Giddens, Anthony. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Havel, Václav. 1985. The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe, edited by John Keane. Armonk, NY: M. E.
Sharpe.
Huntington, Samuel P. 1996. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order. New York: Simon & Schuster.
World Bank. 2016. www.worldbank.org.

14
 PART ONE
THE DISCIPLINES OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

15
 1

The Past in the Present

Historical Interpretation in International Conflict

Historical inquiry combines all of the disciplines of international studies. Historians use geographical, economic,
political, cultural, and any other relevant sources—regardless of their disciplinary category—to create an accurate
portrayal of the past. History teaches students to evaluate evidence, consider contradictory interpretations, and
construct coherent narratives. History is one of the best ways to understand the human experience and the
patterns of change within society.
The history profession is divided into several arbitrary and fluid categories. Political and diplomatic history is
concerned with the study of power and power relationships. It is the oldest historical tradition, often characterized
by biographies of significant people. Politics, law, and foreign policy come under the purview of political history.
Political history is central to understanding current international relations. For example, the rapid growth of the
Chinese economy under the tutelage of an authoritarian Communist government has foreign-policy makers
debating the future of China’s role in the world. Some realists argue that every great power in history has flexed its
muscles and threatened the interests of other powers. China’s political history can provide clues to its likely
foreign-policy course.
Economic history involves the study of the exchange of goods and services. Economic historians seek insight
into economic trends that might inform future economic and business decisions. Economic problems call for
gathering sources relevant to a given question, analyzing their reliability, and interpreting their meaning. For
example, if a business wants to expand into a certain market, it must consider the demographic character of the
population, the location, the standard of living, and the success or failure of previous business ventures in the area.
Theories of economic development depend on accurate case histories of regions that have experienced economic
prosperity. Policies that work in one area, however, may not work in another. Historians of economic
development are cognizant that the success of a certain growth strategy depends on factors such as climate, culture,
political leadership, infrastructure, and resources.
Two subfields of economic history are business history and labor history. Business history includes the study of
the past growth, organization, leadership, and markets of various sectors of the economy, as well as the interaction
between business and government. Labor history focuses on the development of working-class solidarity and
relations between workers, management, and the government. In the context of international studies, globalization
has raised new questions about free-market economics and the plight of wage earners.
Many young students lose their interest in history because teachers concentrate on political history and push
students to learn facts to pass standardized tests. An exciting and interesting field that counteracts that trend is
cultural and social history, which includes the study of music, sports, religion, and art, as well as the history of
urban and rural society, immigration, race, family, population, gender, and disease. We depend on historians to
provide an in-depth understanding of many relevant global issues, such as women’s rights, the clash of global and
local cultures, the role of religion in regional conflicts, aging populations in the developed world, and the threat of
pandemic diseases.
Intellectual historians study the power of ideas to move historical events. Intellectual history concentrates on
the development and influence of ideologies such as religion, nationalism, liberalism, Marxism, and feminism.
For example, when Vladimir Ilyich Lenin brought a Marxist revolution to Russia in 1917, the idea of a classless
society inspired leftists throughout the world for seventy-five years. The Russian manifestation of that idea,
however, was a failure, and the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991. National allegiances proved stronger than class
solidarity as the Soviet Empire broke up on national lines.
Historians can provide a long view of current ideological debates in international affairs, such as the advantages
and disadvantages of a global liberal economic system, the efficacy of spreading democracy in some regions of the
world, and the influence of religion and nationalism on international conflict.
The progress of civilization depends on reliable histories of science and technology. No scientist or engineer

16
works without a thorough grounding in the past. Isaac Newton once said, “If I see farther, it is because I stand on
the shoulders of giants” (quoted in Westfall 1993, 643). Technological innovation plays a central role in
international affairs. Medical experts debate the causes, prevention, and treatment of disease. For doctors and their
patients, accurate clinical studies, and reliable interpretations and histories of them, are matters of life and death.
Doctors want to know family medical histories to examine susceptible patients or to make possible diagnoses.
Engineers depend on past experience to improve on previous constructs, such as hydroelectric projects, irrigation
plans, and transportation systems. For example, careful study of earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, or the collapse of
the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, has spawned new construction plans for buildings that
can withstand such calamities. A possible new field of history will examine the social, political, and economic
impact of the internet and social media.
The related field of environmental history is devoted to people’s interactions with their natural surroundings.
This important new field has generated works on the history of such international issues as water usage, farming
practices, food distribution and famine, and marine and forest preservation. The debate on global warming centers
around evidence of past climate change and whether human activity is contributing to a rise in global
temperatures. Climate history provides a base from which to judge the peculiarities of present weather patterns.

WHAT IS HISTORY?
In 2003, author Bill Bryson wrote a thin volume called A Short History of Nearly Everything. On the one hand, the
irony in Bryson’s title is obvious, but on the other, there is a commonly held notion that history is everything that
has happened in the past. That would be a very long book indeed. The past disappears if no one remembers it or
passes it along. History is a written, oral, or visual reconstruction and interpretation of past human endeavors
based on available sources.
Students often use the slang phrase “you’re history” in the same way they think about history, that it is
something over and done with. The historian’s task is to revisit the past again and again, scrutinize histories for
their veracity, and use new sources of information to verify, add to, or revise them.
There is no agreed-upon record of the past. Historians can come to some consensus on what was a major event
and when it took place, such as natural disasters, economic depressions, or wars, but they differ on questions of
causation, interpretation, and significance. History resembles a criminal trial: detectives compile evidence, and
prosecutors use it to reconstruct the crime. Defense lawyers then call witnesses to revise that version of history.
The reasonable-doubt standard for conviction always applies to any history.
The word history comes from the Latin historia, meaning “to inquire.” Histories have existed as long as people
have reflected on what went on in the past. The first histories were oral and visual. As far as we know, written
history is only several thousand years old. Mythical history sought to explain the origins of the world, natural
phenomena, and the meaning of life. Parables and morality plays, ostensibly based on real stories, laid down the
norms of societal behavior. This early philosophy evolved into the tracts of the five major religions—Judaism,
Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
Historians usually remembered the exploits of major political and religious leaders, such as Alexander the Great
of Macedonia in the fourth century BCE or Emperor Charlemagne in the late eighth century CE. Written
histories were often tales of war and imperial victories or defeats. Family histories traced the lineage of important
historical figures, for example, the dynastic succession of ancient Roman or Chinese emperors or the popes of the
Catholic Church. Bureaucracies and legal standards were built on keeping records of past practices.
Until the late twentieth century, political history dominated the profession. From Thucydides’s History of the
Peloponnesian War in the fifth century BCE to Edward Gibbon’s late-eighteenth-century History of the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire, most historians studied the political fortunes of the most powerful members of society,
most of them men. Many histories were panegyrics to glorify and justify the rule of the dominant political classes.
The history of religion and ideas provided the spiritual and philosophical foundations of temporal power.
Historical accuracy played a secondary role to the narrative’s didactic purpose.

17
 2

Peoples, Places, and Patterns

Geography in International Studies

Geography is Destiny.
—attributed to Napoleon, quoted by Abraham Verghese in Cutting for Stone, 2009.

WHAT IS GEOGRAPHY?
Geography does not automatically determine the outcome of human events, as Napoleon intimates, but
geography does have an impact. Geography is a core discipline of international studies. It is about where and why.
The roots of the word geography (γεωγραφíα) are Greek. Geo means “earth,” while graphy refers to “writing.”
Hence geography is writing about or a description of the earth. In another culture with roots in antiquity, the
Chinese, the word for geography is dili . Di refers to “earth,” while li refers to “pattern or arrangement.”
So in Chinese, dili means the patterns on/of the earth. Geography, then, is a detailed description of both the earth
and its identifiable patterns. To understand those patterns requires thorough analysis and deep understanding
rather than superficial description.
“Geography is the study of where natural environments and human activities are found on Earth’s surface and
the reasons for their location” (Rubenstein et al. 2013, 2). From this definition, we see that geography is a study of
the activities of people as well as a study of the earth itself. The disciplines of history and anthropology study
people too, but what distinguishes geography from these other disciplines is that geography considers the
arrangement of these activities across the earth. Where and why do activities occur? At its core, geography answers
the question of where: Geographic inquiry analyzes the arrangement of people and their activities across the earth
and searches for explanations of those patterns.
Geography has two main areas of study: physical and human. Physical geography examines our environment,
focusing on topics such as soil, climates, plants, and animals. Subfields of physical geography include climatology,
geomorphology, and resource geography. Human geography studies the activities of people, focusing on topics
such as industries, cities, cultures, and transportation. Subfields of human geography include political geography,
economic geography, and cultural geography. For international studies, our considerations of states, cultures,
resources, and economies require an understanding of geography.

DEVELOPMENT OF GEOGRAPHY
Geography is an ancient field of study. The classical Greeks, as well as the classical Chinese, studied the geography
of their respective known worlds. The Greek Eratosthenes (c. 275–195 BCE), who directed the library at
Alexandria, Egypt, wrote a book entitled Geography. Greek theory posited that the lands to the south would be
hotter than the temperate climes of Greece and thus uninhabitable. The oldest example of Chinese geographical
work is the Tribute of Yü, written down around 500 BCE. This tale surveys the Chinese empire, dividing the
empire into nine provinces and annotating the peoples and resources. After the fall of the Roman Empire in 476
CE, geography as a discipline did not develop in Europe. Much knowledge was actually lost in the West but
preserved by the Arabs. Under the patronage of the Caliph in the eighth century, the Greek and Roman
geographies were translated into Arabic. During the Renaissance, Europeans relearned the geography of the Greeks
through encounters with the Muslims. The age of discovery in the 1600s spurred a new awakening of European
geographic thought (Rubenstein et al. 2013; Martin 2005). Although the parallels of latitude were well known in
navigation, the lines of longitude could not be adequately measured. The invention of the marine chronometer in
1759 by John Harrison allowed for accurate east-west measurements (Sobel 1995).

29
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orchard, vineyard, and garden, shaded all day by huge awnings, so
closely stretched that only the sharpest and most lance-like of
sunbeams can cut their way into the coolness below. At night the
market is lighted by flaring torches illumining the whole surrounding
campo.
As for the other smaller stands and shops about the city, they are no
less permanent fixtures, and keep equally bad hours. No matter how
late you stroll down the Zattere or elbow your way along the
Merceria, when every other place is closed, you will come upon a
blazing lamp lighting up a heap of luscious fruit, in its season the
comfort and sustenance of Venice.
Then there are the other markets—the wood market of the
Giudecca, the fish market below the Rialto bridge, and the shops
and stalls scattered throughout the city.
The wood market, a double row of boats moored in mid-stream and
stretching up the broad waterway, is behind the Salute and the salt
warehouses: great, heavy, Dutch-bowed boats, with anchor chains
hanging from the open mouths of dolphins carved on the planking;
long, sharp bowsprits, painted red, and great overhanging green
rudder-sweeps swaying a rudder half as large as a barn door. Aft
there is always an awning stretched to the mainmast, under which
lies the captain, generally sound asleep.
When you board one of these floating wood-yards, and, rousing the
Signor Capitano, beg permission to spread your sketch-awning on
the forward deck out of everybody’s way, you will not only get the
best point of view from which to paint the exquisite domes and
towers of the beautiful Santa Maria della Salute, but, if you sit all day
at work, with the deck wet and cool beneath your feet, and listen to
the barter and sale going on around, you will become familiar with
the workings of the market itself. You will find all these boats loaded
under and above deck with sticks of wood cut about the size of an
axe-handle, tied in bundles that can be tucked under one’s arm.
These are sold over the ship’s side to the peddlers, who boat them
off to their shops ashore. All day long these hucksters come and go,
some for a boat-load, some for a hundred bundles, some for only
one. When the purchase is important, and the count reaches, say, an
even hundred, there is always a squabble over the tally. The captain,
of course, counts, and so does the mate, and so does the buyer. As
soon as the controversy reaches the point where there is nothing left
but to brain the captain with one of his own fagots, he gives in, and
throws an extra bundle into the boat, however honest may have
been the count before. The instantaneous good-humor developed all
around at the concession is only possible among a people who
quarrel as easily as they sing.
Wood is really almost the only fuel in Venice. Coal is too costly, and
the means of utilizing it too complicated. What is wanted is a handful
of embers over which to boil a pot of coffee or warm a soup, a little
fire at a time, and as little as possible, for, unlike many another
commodity, fuel is a bugbear of economy to the Venetian. He rarely
worries over his rent; it is his wood-bill that keeps him awake nights.
Above the fruit market near the Rialto is the new fish market, a
modern horror of cast iron and ribbed glass. (Oh, if the polluting
touch of so-called modern progress could only be kept away from
this rarest of cities!) Here are piled and hung and spread out the
endless varieties of fish and sea foods from the lagoons and the
deep waters beyond; great halibut, with bellies of Japanese
porcelain, millions of minnows, like heaps of wet opals with shavings
of pearl, crabs, fulpe, mussels, and the spoils of the marshes.
Outside, along the canal, are ranged the market boats, with their
noses flattened against the stone quay, their sails clewed up, freeing
the decks, the crews bending under huge baskets.
Fish is the natural flesh-food of the Venetian, fresh every morning,
and at a price for even the poorest. If there is not money enough for
a clean slice cut through the girth of a sea-monster, for a broil, less
than a soldo will buy a handful of little nondescripts like fat spiders,
for soup, or a pint of pebble-like mussels with which to savor a stew.
ON RAINY DAYS
HE wind blows east! All night long the thunder of the surf,
breaking along the Lido, has reverberated through the
deserted streets and abandoned canals of Venice.
From your window you see the fair goddess of the Dogana, tired out
with the whirling winds, clinging in despair to the golden ball—her
sail flying westward, her eyes strained in search of the lost sun. You
see, too, the shallow lagoons, all ashy pale, crawling and shivering in
the keen air, their little waves flying shoreward as if for shelter.
Out beyond San Giorgio, the fishing-boats are tethered to the spiles,
their decks swept by fierce dashes of rain, their masts rocking
wearily. Nearer in, this side the island, two gondolas with drenched
felsi, manned by figures muffled in oilskins, fight every inch of the
way to the Molo; they hug in mid-stream the big P. and O. steamer
lying sullen and deserted, her landing-ladder hanging useless, the
puffs of white steam beaten flat against her red smoke-stacks.
Across the deserted canal the domes of the Salute glisten like
burnished silver in the white light of the gale, and beyond these,
tatters of gray cloud-rack scud in from the sea. Along the quays of
the Dogana the stevedores huddle in groups beneath the sheltering
arches, watching the half-loaded boats surge and jar in the ground-
swell of the incoming sea. In the garden at your very feet lie the
bruised blossoms of the oleanders, their storm-beaten branches
hanging over the wall, fagged out with the battle of the night. Even
the drenched tables under the dripping arbors are strewn with wind-
swept leaves, and the overturned chairs are splashed with sand.
All the light, all the color, all the rest and charm and loveliness of
Venice, are dead. All the tea-rose, sun-warmed marble, all the soft
purples of shifting shadows, all the pearly light of summer cloud and
the silver shimmer of the ever-changing, million-tinted sea, are gone.
Only cold, gray stone and dull, yellow water, reflecting leaden skies,
and black-stained columns and water-soaked steps! Only brown
sails, wet, colorless gondolas and disheartened, baffled pigeons! To-
day the wind blows east!
When the tide turns flood, the waters of the lagoon, driven by the
high wind, begin to rise. Up along the Molo, where the gondolas land
their passengers, the gondoliers have taken away their wooden
steps. Now the sea is level with the top stone of the pavement, and
there are yet two hours to high water. All about the caffès under the
Library, the men stand in groups, sheltered from the driving rain by
the heavy canvas awnings laid flat against the door columns. Every
few minutes some one consults his watch, peering anxiously out to
sea. A waiter serving coffee says, in an undertone, that it is twelve
years since the women went to San Marco in boats; then the water
rose to the sacristy floor.
Under the arcades and between the columns of the Doges’ Palace is
packed a dense mass of people, watching the angry, lawless sea.
Wagers are freely laid that unless the wind shifts the church itself will
be flooded at high water. The gondoliers are making fast their
unused felsi, lashing them to the iron lamp-posts. Along the Molo the
boats themselves, lashed fore and aft to the slender poles, are
rocking restlessly to and fro.
Suddenly a loud cheer breaks from the throng nearest the water’s
edge, and a great, surging wave dashes across the flat stone and
spreads quickly in widening circles of yellow foam over the marble
flagging of the Piazzetta. Then another and another, bubbling
between the iron tables and chairs of the caffès, swashing around
the bases of the columns, and so on like a mill-race, up and around
the Loggietta of the Campanile, and on into the Piazza with a rush. A
wild shout goes up from the caffès and arcades. The waiters run
quickly hither and thither, heaping up the chairs and tables. The
shop-men are closing their shutters and catching up their goods. The
windows of the Procuratie are filled with faces overjoyed at the sight.
Troops of boys, breechless almost to their suspender buttons, are
splashing about in glee. The sea is on the rampage. The bridegroom
is in search of the bride. This time the Adriatic has come to wed the
city. Another hour with the wind east, and only the altar steps of San
Marco will suffice for the ceremony!
Another shout comes from the Piazzetta. There is a great waving of
hands and hats. Windows are thrown open everywhere. The pigeons
sweep in circles; never in the memory of their oldest inhabitant has
there been such a sight. In the excitement of the hour a crippled
beggar slips from a bench and is half-drowned on the sidewalk.
Another and a louder roar, and a gondola rowed by a man in
tarpaulins floats past the Campanile, moves majestically up the
flood, and grounds on the lower steps of San Marco. The boys
plunge in and push, the women laugh and clap their hands.
From the steps of the arcade of the Library, men with bared thighs
are carrying the shop-girls to the entrance of the Merceria under the
clock tower. Some of the women are venturing alone, their shoes
and stockings held above their heads. Farther down, near the corner
column of the Doges’ Palace, a big woman, her feet and ankles
straight out, is breaking the back of a little man who struggles along
hip-deep, followed by the laughter of the whole Piazzetta.
In the campo fronting the church of San Moisè, a little square
hemmed around by high buildings, the sea, having overflowed the
sewers, is spurting small geysers through the cracks in the
pavement; thumping and pounding a nest of gondolas moored under
the bridge.
Out on the Piazzetta a group of men, barelegged and bareheaded,
are constructing a wooden bridge from the higher steps of the
arcade of the Library to the equally high steps surrounding the base
of the column of Saint Theodore, and so on to the corner column of
the Doges’ Palace. They are led by a young fellow wearing a
discarded fatigue-cap, his trousers tied around his ankles. The only
dry spot about him is the lighted end of a cigarette. This is Vittorio—
up from the Via Garibaldi—out on a lark. He and his fellows—Luigi
and the rest—have splashed along the Riva with all the gusto of a
pack of boys reveling in an October snow. They have been soaking
wet since daylight, and propose to remain so until it stops raining.
The building of the bridge was an inspiration of Vittorio, and in five
minutes every loose plank about the traghetto is caught up and
thrown together, until a perilous staging is erected. Upon this Luigi
dances and pirouettes to prove its absolute stability. When it topples
over with the second passenger, carrying with it a fat priest in purple
robe and shovel hat, who is late for the service and must reach the
Riva, Luigi roars with laughter, stands his Reverence on his feet,
and, before he can protest, has hoisted him aback and plunged
knee-deep into the flood.
The crowd yell and cheer, Vittorio holding his sides with laughter,
until the dry flagging of the palace opposite is reached, and the
reverend gentleman, all smiles and benedictions, glides like a turtle
down Luigi’s back.
But the tramps from the Via Garibaldi are not satisfied. Luigi and
Vittorio and little stumpy Appo, who can carry a sack of salt as easily
as a pail of water, now fall into line, offering their broad backs for
other passengers, Vittorio taking up a collection in his hat, the others
wading about, pouncing down upon derelict oars, barrels, bits of
plank, and the débris of the wrecked bridge. When no more soldi for
ferry-tolls are forthcoming, and no more Venetians, male or female,
can be found reckless or hurried enough to intrust their precious
bodies to Luigi’s shoulders, the gang falls to work on a fresh bridge.
This Vittorio has discovered hidden away in the recesses of the
Library cellars, where it has lain since the last time the Old Man of
the Sea came bounding over the Molo wall. There are saw-horses
for support, and long planks with rusty irons fastened to each end,
and braces, and cross-pieces. All these are put up, and the bridge
made entirely practicable, within half an hour. Then the people cross
and recross, while the silent gendarmes look on with good-natured
and lazy indifference. One very grateful passenger drops a few soldi
into Vittorio’s water-soaked fatigue-cap. Another, less generous,
pushes him to one side, crowding some luckless fellow, who jumps
overboard up to his knees to save himself from total immersion, the
girls screaming with assumed fright, Vittorio coaxing and pleading,
and Luigi laughing louder than ever.
At this moment a steamboat from the Lido attempts to make fast to
her wharf, some hundreds of feet down the Molo. As the landing-
planks are afloat and the whole dock awash, the women and
children under the awnings of the after-deck, although within ten feet
of the solid stone wall, are as much at sea as if they were off the
Lido. Vittorio and his mates take in the situation at a glance, and are
alongside in an instant. Within five minutes a plank is lashed to a
wharf-pile, a rope bridge is constructed, and Vittorio begins passing
the children along, one by one, dropping them over Luigi’s
shoulders, who stands knee-deep on the dock. Then the women are
picked up bodily, the men follow astride the shoulders of the others,
and the impatient boat moves off to her next landing-place up the
Giudecca.
By this time hundreds of people from all over the city are pouring into
the Piazza, despite the driving rain and gusts of wind. They move in
a solid mass along the higher arcades of the Library and the Palace.
They crawl upon the steps of the columns and the sockets of the
flag-staffs; they cling to the rail and pavement of the Loggietta—
wherever a footing can be gained above the water-line. To a
Venetian nothing is so fascinating as a spectacle of any kind, but it
has been many a day since the Old Man of the Sea played the
principal rôle himself!
There is no weeping or wailing about wet cellars and damp
basements, no anxiety over damaged furniture and water-soaked
carpets. All Venetian basements are damp; it is their normal
condition. If the water runs in, it will run out again. They have known
this Old Sea King for centuries, and they know every whim in his
head. As long as the Murazzi hold—the great stone dykes breasting
the Adriatic outside the lagoons—Venice is safe. To-morrow the
blessed sun will shine again, and the warm air will dry up the last
vestige of the night’s frolic.
Suddenly the wind changes. The rain ceases. Light is breaking in the
west. The weather-vane on the Campanile glows and flashes. Now a
flood of sunshine bursts forth from a halo of lemon-colored sky. The
joyous pigeons glint like flakes of gold. Then a shout comes from the
Molo. The sea is falling! The gondolier who has dared the centre of
the Piazza springs to his oar, strips off his oilskins, throws them into
his boat, and plunges overboard waist-deep, seizing his gondola by
the bow. The boys dash in on either side. Now for the Molo! The
crowd breaks into cheers. On it goes, grounding near the Porta della
Carta, bumping over the stone flagging; afloat again, the boatmen
from the Molo leaping in to meet it; then a rush, a cheer, and the
endangered gondola clears the coping of the wall and is safe at her
moorings.
Half an hour later the little children in their white summer dresses,
the warm sunshine in their faces, are playing in the seaweed that
strews the pavements of the Piazzetta.
LEGACIES OF THE PAST
ILL you have the kindness to present Professor Croisac’s
profound adoration to the Contessa Albrizzi, and say that
he humbly begs permission to conduct his friend, a most
distinguished painter, through the noble salons of her
palazzo?”
It was the Professor, standing bareheaded on the landing-steps of
the entrance to the Palazzo Albrizzi, the one lonely glove breaking
the rounded outline of his well-brushed hat. He was talking to a
portly Italian who did duty as Cerberus. As for myself, I was tucked
back under the tenda, awaiting the result of the conference, Espero
smiling at the old fellow’s elaborate address and manners.
The porter bowed low, and explained, with much earnestness, that
the Illustrissima was then sojourning at her country-seat in the Tyrol;
adding that, despite this fact, the whole palace, including the garden
and its connecting bridge, from the courtyard to the roof, was
completely at the service of the Signor Professore.
“And all for two lire,” whispered Espero, to whom the old gentleman
was a constant source of amusement, and who could never quite
understand why most of his talking was done with his back bent at
right angles to his slender legs. So we followed the porter up the
stone staircase, around its many turns, to the grand hall above, with
its rich pictures panelled on the walls, and so on through the various
rooms of white stucco and old gold brocades, to the grand salon, the
one with the famous ceiling.
The night before, over a glass of Torino vermouth at Florian’s, the
Professor had insisted that I should not live another day until he had
piloted me through all those relics of the past, illustrative of an age in
Venice as sumptuous as it was artistic.
First of all I must see the gorgeous ceilings of the Albrizzi; then the
curious vine-covered bridge leading out of the Contessa’s boudoir to
a garden across the narrow canal, as secluded as the groves of
Eden before Adam stepped into them. Then I must examine the
grand Palazzo Rezzonico, begun by Longhena in 1680, and
completed sixty years later by Massari; once the home of Pope
Clement XIII., and again made immortal as sheltering the room in
which Browning had breathed his last. There, too, was the Barbaro,
with its great flight of stone steps sweeping up and around two sides
of a court to the picturesque entrance on the second floor,—the
Barbaro, with its exquisite salon, by far the most beautiful in Europe.
There was the Palazzo Pisani, built in the fifteenth century, its
galleries still hung with Venetian mirrors; and the Palazzo Pesaro,
designed by this same Longhena in 1679, the home of an illustrious
line of Venetian nobles from Leonardo Pesaro down to the Doge
Giovanni, with its uncanny row of grotesque heads of boars, bulls,
and curious beasts studded along the water-table of the first story, a
hand’s touch from your gondola, so grotesque and quaint that each
one looked like a nightmare solidified into stone. There were also the
Dandolo, where lived the great Doge Enrico Dandolo, the conqueror
of Constantinople,—conqueror at ninety-seven years of age; the
Farsetti, where Canova studied, in his time an academy; the
Barbarigo, where Titian once held court; the Mocenigo, where Byron
lived; not to mention the veritable home of the veritable Desdemona,
including the identical balcony where Othello breathed his love.
All these I must see, and more. More in out-of-the-way churches like
San Giorgio della Schiavoni, with the Carpaccios that are still as
brilliant as when the great painter laid down his brush. More in the
Gesuati up the Zattere, with its exquisite Tiepolos. Infinitely more in
the school of San Rocco, especially behind the altars and under the
choir-loft; in the Frari next door, and in a dozen other picturesque
churches; and away out to Torcello, the mother of Venice, with its
one temple,—the earliest of Venetian cathedrals,—its theatre-like
rows of seats, and the ancient slate shutters swinging on huge
hinges of stone.
But to return to the Professor, who is still gazing up into the exquisite
ceiling of the salon of the Contessa, pointing out to me the boldness
and beauty of the design, a white sheet drawn taut at the four
corners by four heroic nude figures, its drooping folds patted up
against the ceiling proper by a flutter of life-sized, winged cupids
flying in the air, in high relief, or half smothered in its folds.
“Nothing gives you so clear an idea of the lives these great nobles
lived,” said the Professor, “as your touching something they touched,
walking through their homes—the homes they lived in—and
examining inch by inch the things they lived with. Now this Palazzo
Albrizzi is, perhaps, less spacious and less costly than many others
of the period; but, for all that, look at the grand hall, with its sides a
continuous line of pictures! Its ceiling a marvel of stucco and rich-
colored canvases! Do you find anything like this outside of Venice?
And now come through the salon, all white and gold, to the bridge
spanning the canal. Here, you see, is where my lady steps across
and so down into her garden when she would be alone. You must
admit that this is quite unique.”
The Professor was right. A bridge from a boudoir to a garden wall,
sixty or more feet above the water-line, is unusual, even in Venice.
And such a bridge! All smothered in vines, threading their way in and
out the iron lattice-work of the construction, and sending their tendrils
swinging, heads down, like acrobats, to the water below. And such a
garden! Framed in by high prison walls, their tops patrolled by
sentinels of stealthy creepers and wide-eyed morning-glories! A
garden with a little glass-covered arbor in the centre plot, holding a
tiny figure of the Virgin; circular stone benches for two, and no more;
tree-trunks twisted into seats, with encircling branches for shoulders
and back, and all, too, a thousand miles in the wilderness for
anything you could hear or see of the life of the great city about you.
A garden for lovers and intrigues and secret plots, and muffled
figures smuggled through mysterious water-gates, and stolen
whisperings in the soft summer night. A garden so utterly shut in,
and so entirely shut out, that the daughter of a Doge could take her
morning bath in the fountain with all the privacy of a boudoir.
“Yes,” said the Professor, with a slight twinkle in his eye, “these old
Venetians knew; and perhaps some of the modern ones.”
 WIDE PALATIAL STAIRCASES
And so we spent the day, rambling in and out of a dozen or more of
these legacies of the past, climbing up wide palatial staircases; some
still inhabited by the descendants of the noble families; others
encumbered with new and old furniture, packing-boxes and loose
straw, now magazines for goods; gazing up at the matchless
equestrian statue of Colleoni, the most beautiful the world over;
rambling through the San Giovanni e Paolo; stopping here and there
to sketch, perhaps the Madonna over the gate next the Rezzonico,
or some sculptured lion surmounting the newel-post of a still more
ancient staircase; prying into back courts or up crumbling staircases,
or opening dust-begrimed windows only to step out upon unkept
balconies overhanging abandoned gardens; every carving, pillar, and
rafter but so much testimony to the wealth, power, and magnificence
of these rulers of the earth.
“And now to the Caffè Calcina for luncheon, Espero.”
When we had dodged into its open door out of the heat, and were
seated at one of its little square tables under the grapevines, the
Professor fished up two books from that capacious inside pocket of
his, and with much explanatory preface of how he had searched
through all the book-stalls of the Rialto, finding them at last in the
great library of the Doge’s Palace itself, wiped their faded covers
with a napkin, and turned the leaves tenderly with his withered
fingers.
“And just see what festivities went on in these great palaces! Here is
a little book written by Giustina Renier Michiel, and published early in
the century. It is especially interesting as throwing some light on the
wonderful festivities of the olden time. You remember the Palazzo
Nani, the palace we saw after leaving the Dandolo? Well, listen to
this account of a wonderful fête given in the beginning of the last
century at this very palace”—the Professor had closed the book over
his finger—he knew the description by heart.
“Michiel says that owing to the intense cold the lagoon was frozen
over as far as Mestre, so the hospitable host warmed every part of
the palace with huge stoves made of solid silver, elaborately wrought
in exquisite designs; and not content with the sum of that outlay, he
completed the appointments and decorations in the same precious
metal, even to the great candelabra lighting the entrance hall. And
then, as a mere freak of hospitality,—he had a large visiting list, you
may be sure,—he added ten rooms to his varied suites, in each one
of which he placed musicians of different nationalities, just to prevent
crowding, you see.
“And now let me read you of another. Part of the palace referred to
here,” he added, “has, I believe, been destroyed these many years.
It was the home of Patrizio Grimani—the palace where we saw the
fine portrait of a Doge hanging near the window. That must have
been the room in which the banquet took place. The stage referred
to must have been erected in the room opening out from it. The
author Michiel says, in describing a princely fête that took place
here, that ‘after the play’—performed by his private company in his
own theatre, remember—‘the guests were ushered into an adjoining
room and the doors closed. In half an hour the doors were re-
opened, discovering a superb ballroom, with every vestige of the
theatre and its appointments swept away.’
“All years and years ago, mon ami,” continued the Professor, closing
the book, “and in the very room that you and I walked through! Think
of the balconies crowded with Venetian beauties in the richest of
brocades and jewels! Imagine that same old ruin of a garden, roofed
over and brilliant with a thousand lanterns! See the canals packed
with gondolas, the torch-bearers lighting the way! Bah! When I think
of the flare of modern gas-jets along the Champs Elysées, and the
crush of fiacres and carriages, all held in check by a score of
gendarmes in black coats; of the stuffy rooms and screeching violins;
and then drink in the memory of these fêtes, with their
sumptuousness and grandeur, I can hardly restrain my disgust for
the cheap shams of our times.
“And here is another ancient chronicle of quite a different kind,”
opening the other book. “You will find it more or less difficult, for it is
in old Italian, and some of its sentences, even with my knowledge of
the language,”—this with a certain wave of the hand, as if no one
had ever disputed it,—“I can only guess at. This, too, came from the
library in the Doge’s Palace, and is especially valuable as showing
how little change there is between the Venice of to-day and the
Venice of a century and a half ago, so far as localities and old
landmarks go. The customs, I am delighted to say, have somewhat
improved. It was written by one Edmondo Lundy in 1750.[1] He
evidently came down to Venice to try his wings, and from his notes I
should say he spread them to some purpose. He first fell into the
clutches of a grand dame,—a certain noble lady, a Duchessa,—who
sent for him the day after he arrived, and who complimented him
upon his bearing and personal attractions. Then she explained that
all Venetian ladies of position had attached to their persons a
gentleman in waiting, a sort of valet de place of the heart, as it were,
who made love to them in a kind of lute-and-guitar-fashion, with
ditties and song; that she had seen him on the Riva the afternoon
before, had admired his figure and face, and being at the moment
without any such attendant herself had determined to offer him the
situation. His being a foreigner only increased her ardor, foreigners
being at a high premium for such positions in those days. Although
the Duchessa had already a husband of her own, was wrinkled,
partly bald, and over sixty, Lundy, the gay cavalier, fell into the
scheme. It is delightful to hear him tell of how the strange courtship
progressed, one incident in particular: It was the custom of the
fashionable set of the day to drift out in their gondolas up the
Giudecca in the twilight, right in front of where we now sit; you can
see the spot from this window. Here they would anchor in mid-
stream and listen to recitals of music and poetry by some of the
more gifted cavaliers,—lines from Dante and Tasso,—the servants
and gondoliers serving the ices, which were all brought from this
very Caffè Calcina. See, the name was spelled the same way. Does
it not make you feel, as you sit here, that you have only to shut your
eyes to bring it all back? Oh, the grand days of the Republic! These
old vines above our heads could tell a story!
“But it seems that even the Duchessa palled on so versatile a
cavalier as Lundy. She really bored him to death, so he hunts out a
friend, explains the situation, and begs that he will get him out of the
scrape. The friend writes a letter to Milan, and has it re-delivered to
Lundy, summoning him instantly to the bedside of a dying relative.
This letter is shown to the Duchessa, who parts with him with many
tears and protestations, and Lundy leaves Venice. In three months
he returns, hoping that some other equally handsome and attractive
young foreigner has taken his place. Alas! the black drapings of the
Duchessa’s gondola announce her death. And now comes the most
comical part of it all. In her will she left him a thousand lire to
purchase some souvenir expressive of the love and devotion with
which he had inspired her!
“Further on Lundy tells how he watched for hours the efforts of two
priests to get a breakfast. They were strung half way up the
Campanile, suspended outside the tower, between heaven and
earth, in an iron cage. That, it seems, was the punishment inflicted
on such unworthy gentlemen of the Church. They were considered
to be better equipped than their parishioners to resist temptation,
and so when they went astray they were strung up, like birds, in a
cage. The only way these Lotharios got anything to eat was by
letting down a string, to which some charitable soul would tie a
flagon of wine or a loaf of bread. This morning the string was too
short, and Lundy had no end of fun watching their efforts to piece it
out with rosaries and sandal-lacings.
“Another time he was stopped by a poet on the Piazza, right in front
of where Florian’s now stands; the same caffè, perhaps, who knows?
In those days, quite as it is now, the Piazza was a rendezvous for all
Venice. All the doctors went there in search of patients, soliciting
their patronage and holding out their diplomas. The mountebanks
had performances on a carpet stretched on the pavement, and the
actors played their parts in little booths erected between the clock
tower and the Loggietta of the Campanile,—the roars of applause
could be heard away out on the lagoons. The professional poets,
too, would hand you copies of their latest productions, and button-
hole you long enough to have you listen to a sample stanza.
“Lundy was beguiled in this way, and an hour later discovered that
his tobacco-box, containing a portrait of his mother, set in brilliants—
an old-fashioned snuff-box, perhaps—was missing. So, under the
advice of a friend, he went to the headquarters of the city guard.
“‘Where did you lose it?’ said the Chief. ‘Ah! the poet. Do not worry.
In two days please come again.’
“When he returned, the Chief said:—
“‘Please take some tobacco.’ It was from his own box!
“Then the Chief explained that in addition to being a poet, the man
was also a member of the Borsainoli (literally translated, ‘the takers’),
from which our own word ‘Bourse’ is derived.
“The same old swindlers still, only our stock-brokers do not stop at
our tobacco-boxes,” added the Professor, laughing.
“Then Lundy goes on to explain that whatever these fellows
succeeded in stealing they must bring to the Chief’s office within
three days. If the article was reclaimed within fifteen days, the thief
received only a small sum, and the article was returned to its owner.
If it was never called for, then it belonged to the thief. If he was
detected in the act, or failed to return it to the office, he was
punished.
“‘But why do you permit this?’ continues Lundy, speaking to the
Chief.
“‘To encourage an ingenious, intelligent, sagacious activity among
the people,’ replied the officer, with perfect seriousness.
“See, I translate literally,” said the Professor, with his finger on the
line, throwing back his head in laughter.
But the day was not over for the Professor. We must go to the
Church of the Frari, the Professor going into raptures over the joyous
Madonna and Saints by Bellini, while I had a little rapture of my own
over a live, kneeling mother, illumined by a shaft of light which fell on
her babe clasped to her breast,—a Madonna of to-day, infinitely
more precious and lovely than any canvas which ages had toned to
a dull smokiness. But then the Professor lives in the past, while I
have a certain indefensible adoration for the present—when it comes
to Madonnas.
Later we idled along between the columns supporting the roof, and
wandered up behind the altar, the whole interior aglow with the
afternoon sun, stopping at the monument of the great Titian and the
tomb of Canova. To his credit be it said, the Professor had no
raptures over this outrage in marble. And around all the other stone
sepulchres of doge, ambassador, and noble, lingering in the open
door for a last glance back into its rich interior—certainly, after San
Marco, the most picturesque and harmonious in coloring of all the
churches in Venice—until we emerged into the sunlight and lost
ourselves in the throngs of people blocking up the Campo. Then we
turned the corner and entered San Rocco.
It was the festa day of the Frari, and the superb staircase of the
Scuola di San Rocco, lined with the marvellous colorings of Titian
and Tintoretto, was thronged with people in gala costume, crowding
up the grand staircase to the upper sala, the room once used as an
assembly-room by the Brotherhood of the Order. I had seen it often
before, without the Professor, for this was one of my many
pilgrimages. Whenever you have an hour to spare, lose half your
breath mounting this staircase. You will lose the other half when this
magnificent council chamber bursts upon your view. Even the first
sight of the floor will produce that effect.
You have doubtless, in your youth, seen a lady’s brooch, fashionable
then, made of Florentine mosaic,—a cunning, intricate joining of
many-colored stones,—or perhaps a paper-weight of similar intricate
design, all curves and scrolls. Imagine this paper-weight, with its
delicacy of fitting, high polish, and harmony of color, enlarged to a
floor several hundred feet long, by a proportionate width,—I have not
the exact dimensions, and it would convey no better idea if I had,—
and you will get some faint impression of the quality and beauty of
the floor of this grand sala. Rising from its polished surface and
running half way up the four walls, broken only by the round door
you entered, with the usual windows and a corner chapel, is a
wainscoting of dark wood carved in alto relievo, in the last century,
by Marchioni and his pupils. Above this is a procession of pictures,
harmonizing in tone with the carvings and mosaics, and over all
hangs a scroll-like ceiling incrusted with gold, its seven panels made
luminous by Tintoretto’s brush.
These panels are not his masterpieces. The side walls are equally
unimportant, so far as the ravings of experts and art critics go. Even
the carvings, on close inspection, are labored, and often grotesque.
But to the painter’s eye and mind this single sala of San Rocco,
contrasted with all the other stately banquet halls and council
chambers of Europe, makes of them but shelters to keep out the
weather.
Filled with peasants and gala people in brilliant costumes on some
festa day, when all may enter, the staircase crowded, its spacious
interior a mass of colored handkerchief, shawl, and skirt, all flooded
with the golden radiance of the sun, it is one of the rare sights of
Venice. But even empty, with only your footfall and that of the
bareheaded custodian to break the profound stillness, it is still your
own ideal princely hall,—that hall where the most gallant knight of
the most entrancing romance of your childhood could tread a
measure with the fairest ladye of the loftiest, cragged-stepped castle;
that salon where the greatest nobles of your teeming fancy could
strut about in ermine and cloth of gold; where the wonderful knights
held high revel, with goblets of crystal and flagons of ruby wine, and
all the potentates from the spice-laden isles could be welcomed with
trumpet and cymbal. Here you are sure Desdemona might have
danced, and Katharine; and here Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus,
received the ambassadors of her promised kingdom. As you stand
breathless, drinking in its proportions, you feel that it is a sala for
pomps and ceremonies, not for monkish rites; a sala for wedding
breakfasts and gay routs and frolicsome masquerades and bright
laughter, rather than for whispered conferences in cowl and frock.
Even its polished floor recalls more readily the whirl of flying slippers
than the slow, measured tread of sandalled feet.
The Professor himself, I regret to say, was not wildly enthusiastic
over this interior. In fact he made no remark whatever, except that
the floor was too slippery to walk upon, and looked too new to him.
This showed the keynote of his mind: the floor was laid within a