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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

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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.

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FIGURE 1.1 Karl Marx. SOURCE: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-16530.

Influenced by the humanism and rational thinking of Renaissance and Enlightenment scholars, as well as by the
rapid technological changes of modern industrial society, some nineteenth-century historians in the West
championed a new empirical approach to history. Karl Marx devised a political-economic theory of history based
on the “scientific” truth of class conflict. German historian Leopold von Ranke claimed to write history “wie es
eigentlich gewesen ist,” or history “as it really was.” Von Ranke and fellow positivists tried to inject the scientific
method into the process of writing history. They called for histories based on empirical evidence and historical
objectivity. Reference notes cued the reader to the documents used to prove the truth of the history. To reflect this
change in the approach to studying history, many history departments shifted from the humanities to the social
sciences during the twentieth century.
The Rankean model came under increased fire after World War II, when revisionist history began to question
the “scientific truth” of history. Revisionists claimed, often correctly, that conventional histories about the past
were myths intended to foster a sense of national unity and national pride. They revealed that many stories of the
past manipulated historical facts and ignored non-dominant perspectives. In the United States, revisionists laid
bare the lies that the Johnson and Nixon administrations told about the Vietnam War. Civil-rights advocates
demanded a truer version of the past to reflect the dismal treatment of minorities in American history. In Europe,
historians exposed the brutality of imperial rule, state violence against working classes, and, in light of the
Holocaust, Europe’s endemic anti-Semitism and fascist tendencies. Historians examine and reexamine new
evidence to reframe the past or to confirm previous accounts.
Today, postmodernist historians deny the existence of any objective histories. They argue that the past cannot
be recovered and that no narrative can be an accurate reflection of what actually transpired. Like impressionist and
expressionist art, they consider history to be a partial and particular depiction of reality as the creator creates it or
the audience perceives it. Observed from different angles and distances, and under different kinds of light, the
image changes.
Postmodernists emphasize the cultural mediation of historical memory; in some ways, they argue, historical
narratives reveal more about the author’s beliefs and cultural milieu than history “as it really was.” Historians are
the filter through which the past is constructed. They bring their own personal, national, or class biases to the
trade. They are carried along by the stream of human history, and they influence the cultural context and are
influenced by it. Even video and film documentation is dependent on the framing, camera angle, and editing.
Scenes can be staged, and in this age of computer imaging, entirely contrived. Because history is merely a
representation of the past and is continually shaped and reshaped, postmodernists argue, there can be no objective
historical truth.
Professional historians know this, but they still make a good-faith effort to use all relevant sources and write
balanced narratives that come as close to the truth about the past as possible. Reliable histories depend on the skill

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and thoroughness of historians, cogency of their logic, and conscious subordination of the biases that they bring to
their work. Sources take good historians where they may not want to go. Writers who start with a premise, fit the
sources to prove it, and ignore contrary evidence are more interested in polemical than historical discourse. The
resolution of international disputes often depends on histories and historians dedicated to accurate renditions of
the past.

HISTORIANS AND THEIR TOOLS

The historian’s task is to garner all available relevant sources to construct a plausible story of the past. Historians
scour archives, libraries, museums, and other repositories of documents and artifacts. They often gather data
through interviews, although the passage of time limits their utility. Journalists are historians too, but short-term
deadlines limit their access to relevant evidence. Historians benefit by drawing on a wider range of sources,
although the clues to the historian’s case are always incomplete.
Historical data are often divided into two, somewhat subjective, categories. Primary sources include artifacts,
diaries, letters, memoirs, e-mails, autobiographies, interviews, official documents, visual images, coins, stamps,
demographic statistics, economic records, and polls. Primary sources are direct evidence about the past from
someone involved in the past event, without an intermediary’s interpretation. Theoretically, primary sources are
raw objective data that are untainted by bias or the knowledge that historians will use them to construct a history.
There is a fine line between primary and secondary sources, however, because it is often difficult to know what
motives people had for leaving sources behind. For example, did the minute taker of an important foreign-policy
planning session give an honest rendering of the meeting, or did that person intend to exaggerate the wisdom of
the participants? Like a prosecuting attorney, the historian must search for other corroborating evidence to find
the truth and decide which primary sources are most reliable.
Letters and diaries may seem to be direct and objective links to the past, but the authors often write them
knowing that historians will read them later. Autobiographies are also written for posterity; authors are unlikely to
provide critical self-examination of their lives. Eyewitness accounts, a staple in the journalist’s trade, provide very
different pictures of a single event. The historian is well aware of the irony in the witness-stand pledge to “tell the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” There is no such thing. Taken at face value, statistics appear to
be the most objective of all primary sources. But as any sociologist knows, statistics are only as good as the data
from which they are derived. And even the most accurate statistics can be skewed to fit a political agenda.
Secondary sources are oral or written narratives derived from primary sources. The authors of newspaper
articles, journal articles, and books gather sources to interpret what happened in the past. The distinction between
primary and secondary sources is muddled when a historian writes a history of histories, often called a
historiography. In that case, previous histories become the author’s primary sources.
Historians must make judgments about the reliability of their source material. Both historians and political
scientists try to find patterns in the past, but historians are more skeptical about categorizing behaviors and using
models to make predictions about the future.

POLITICS, POWER, AND HISTORY

The victors in power struggles have passed down most of recorded history. The politically powerful have greater
access to written, oral, and visual media. Histories often glorify political leaders, praise heroic exploits on the
battlefield, or emphasize a particular group’s cultural and scientific accomplishments. Political agendas filter out
dissonant historical evidence. The “triumphal” version of American history includes Christopher Columbus’s
“discovery” of America (as though no one lived in the Western hemisphere), the unique democratic character of
the American form of government (what about the Netherlands, France, or the United Kingdom?), and the
“benevolent” U.S. expansion into the American West and abroad (ask Native Americans). This history typically
exaggerates the peculiar democratic and righteous character of the American people and downplays the country’s
slaveholding past, imperialism, and ethnic cleansing of America’s native peoples.
The history of the oppressed has always existed, but until recently their stories have been excluded from the
dominant cultural discourse. It was only in the last half of the twentieth century that “history from below” became
mainstream. Revisionist histories have become common; now historians study Native Americans, colonized
peoples, women, the working classes, and other groups hidden from view in the old political histories of “dead
white guys.”
Histories of the “defeated” can be just as biased as those of their oppressors, however. Some historians have
exaggerated the peace-loving character of Native American or African peoples before Europeans corrupted their

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cultures. Some Afrocentrists have shaped the historical record to argue that Egyptians and other African peoples
were more advanced than the Greeks or Romans, or they have downplayed the lively African slave trade before the
arrival of European slavers. Some labor historians portray working-class leaders as intelligent, nonviolent, altruistic
champions of the people, and factory owners as inherently greedy, inhumane, and exploitative. Victims of
oppression do themselves no service by exaggerating their political and cultural achievements and distorting the
historical record. No other group will believe myths based on historical falsehoods.

FIGURE 1.2 Landing of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean. SOURCE: Courtesy of the Library of Congress,
LC-DIG-pga-02516.

When leaders distort the historical record to suit their political aims, tragedy often results. The French were
fully appreciative of American military assistance in World War I, but their military histories stressed the sacrifices
and heroism of the French forces for winning the war and the success of trench warfare in defending Paris. These
histories downplayed the role of American soldiers in turning the military balance in favor of the Allies in 1917.
Acting upon these false assumptions about why they had won the war, the French built the massive Maginot Line
along the French-German border. This costly, sophisticated line of defensive fortifications did not save France
from the German onslaught in 1940.
Soviet scholars ran a historical enterprise that was dedicated to “predicting the past.” In other words, the past
had to be cast in a way that squared with Marx’s theory of history as class struggle. Thus peasant revolts were part
of an inexorable struggle against the aristocratic classes, and the middle classes were deemed keepers of an
inherently oppressive democratic-capitalist system. After his death in 1924, Lenin was permanently encased in a
glass mausoleum for all Soviet citizens to view for eternity. Although Marx had focused on classes rather than
individuals to explain historical progress, paradoxically there was room for sainthood in “scientific” Soviet history.
Russians are now divided about whether to bury Lenin.
The leaders of the Soviet Communist Party could do no wrong; even Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s “secret
speech” in 1956, in which he exposed Joseph Stalin’s crimes, did not result in a serious revision of Soviet history.
The system survived by hiding the Party’s culpability (Khrushchev included) for the ruthless suppression of any
opposition, the collectivization that resulted in mass starvation in the 1930s, and the incarceration and murder of
hundreds of thousands of innocent people during the Great Purges. The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev,
allowed a policy of glasnost (openness) in the late 1980s that finally released Russian historians from seventy years
of lies and distortions. Once Gorbachev revealed the falsehoods of Soviet history, the system could not survive.

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The Chinese Communist leadership today knows that they must control their version of the past lest they meet
the same fate as the Soviet Union.
Some historians credit nuclear deterrence for keeping the peace between the United States and the Soviet Union
during the Cold War. There is no evidence in newly released documents from Soviet and U.S. archives, however,
that either side contemplated a first strike except in response to a direct conventional military attack on a friend or
ally. Will the deterrent principle prevent nuclear powers India and Pakistan from going to war again? If we believe
nuclear weapons prevent war, some countries may try to build their own deterrent nuclear arsenal. Nuclear
proliferation could be the result. In the age of weapons of mass destruction, the stakes are obviously too high for
the public to tolerate the willful use of inaccurate histories to make and justify policy decisions.

HISTORY AND INTERNATIONAL CONFLICTS

The current state of international affairs cannot be understood without a thorough comprehension of the way
history is constructed. Contradictory versions of the past are at the heart of the most intractable international
conflicts today. Collective memories are often fostered to serve national political goals. Nationalist histories are
usually not concerned with individual rights and responsibilities; rather, they tend to champion one nation over
another and often elicit demands for retribution to right past injustices. Such histories became important to
nations seeking independence from colonial control during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; see Map 1.1
for an image of when these struggles took place worldwide. This “our group has done no wrong” version of the
past is a major obstacle to political compromise.
For example, some Irish Catholics interpret the centuries-old British presence in Ireland as imperial conquest
rather than settlement. Many Irish Catholics still blame the British for the loss of their land, the potato famine,
and the lingering poverty in the Northern Irish Catholic community. Oliver Cromwell, the Union Jack, and the
English crown are reminders of British imperialism and frustrated national expression. In contrast, Northern Irish
Protestants driving through Belfast might take a nostalgic look at the giant cranes of the defunct dry dock where
the Titanic, a symbol of the modern economic progress and relative wealth of their community, was built in the
early twentieth century. The presence of British political institutions in Northern Ireland is a comforting reminder
of their close links to the British Empire.
Diametrically opposing versions of history are used to justify Israeli or Arab claims on Palestine. Israelis
reference the Hebrew Bible to make the “we were here first” argument. That is ancient history to Arabs, who
argue that their presence in Palestine over the last 1,200 years is a more legitimate historical claim. Arab Muslims,
Jews, and Christians lived in the area for centuries before European Jewish immigrants began arriving in
significant numbers after World War I. Israel has won the three wars against Arab states since partition in 1947,
prompting many Israelis to shrug and say that might makes right. Israelis celebrate the birth of the new Israeli
state in 1948, while Palestinians term it the nakba (catastrophe).
Most Israeli and Palestinian history books give different versions of the Palestinian flight to the West Bank and
Gaza Strip in 1947 and 1948. The Israelis certainly terrorized some of the Palestinian community into leaving the
UN-designated area of Israel, as Palestinians maintain, but many Arabs left of their own accord. Whether or not
Palestinians have a right to return to their homes in Israel hinges on this historical debate, which contributed to
the failed peace process of the late 1990s. The tragedy of the Arab-Israeli conflict is that both sides have legitimate
historical claims to Palestine.

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MAP 1.1 Year of Independence.

FIGURE 1.3 Irish woman during the famine begging for help from American ships. SOURCE: Courtesy of the
Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-103220.

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 Similarly, Russian President Vladimir Putin justified taking Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 because of Russia’s
presence there for centuries. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev ceded the region to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist
Republic in 1954, never imagining that the Soviet Union would break up, leaving Crimea in an independent
Ukrainian state. China goes back centuries to claim the “historic waters” of the South China Sea and to the so-
called “eleven-dash line” drawn by the nationalist Chinese government in 1947. China’s assertion of this maritime
border far beyond mainland China ignores similar historical arguments made by Vietnam and the Philippines and
contradicts the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

FIGURE 1.4 The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is a disputed holy site for both Jews and Muslims. SOURCE:
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-137057.

Historians make semantic choices that often reveal bias. Palestinians might refer to their suicide bombers as
martyrs on a political, military, and religious mission, while Israelis label them criminals and mass murderers.
Nationalist Serbs embrace their militias in Bosnia during the Yugoslav Civil War in the 1990s as heroic defenders
of the nation, not rapists or mass murderers. The Nicaraguan Contra rebel group fought the leftist Sandinista
government in the 1980s. They were paramilitary remnants of the thuggish deposed dictatorship of Anastasio
Somoza, but President Ronald Reagan gave them the moniker “freedom fighters.” Some observers claim that the
Janjaweed bands operating against the indigenous populations in the Darfur region of western Sudan are
government supported; the government prefers to call them “rogue bandits.”
When nationalists are confronted with criticism of their people, they react with denial and verbal attacks on
other peoples. They view history as an inexorable struggle of nation against nation and, therefore, criticism of
one’s own history as treasonous. Serbian nationalists point out that Croatians and Bosnian Muslims committed
mutual atrocities during the war. This is true enough but does nothing to exonerate Serbian criminals.
India and Pakistan use opposing versions of history to stake their claims to Kashmir. When the British granted
independence to India in 1947, the state fell into communal strife between Muslims and Hindus. Two new
Islamic states of West and East Pakistan (today Pakistan and Bangladesh, respectively) emerged, leaving hundreds
of thousands dead and millions of people displaced. Whether Muslim-majority Kashmir should be part of these
Islamic states or part of India depends on the details of the complicated processes by which rajahs turned over
their states to these newly formed nations more than sixty years ago. Pakistan and India have fought three wars
since then, and low-level fighting over Kashmir continues. Both states have nuclear weapons, making the area one
of the most dangerous threats to regional and world peace. Historical dissonance persists over which side was the
aggressor and how many people were forced to leave their communities.

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 Defense of the nation becomes synonymous with defense of the national myth. At the end of the twentieth
century, an Indian education minister mandated a revisionist version of Indian history texts to recast former
Muslim rulers of India as uncivilized, brutal despots. In 2003, a U.S. author published a much-acclaimed book
that some Indians believed maligned the reputation of a seventeenth-century Hindu king. Former Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee warned foreign authors not to “play with our national pride. We are prepared to take action
against the foreign author in case the state government fails to do so” (Dalrymple 2005, 62).
Who are the keepers of authentic Chinese history, the nationalist Chinese in Taiwan, or the Communist regime
in mainland China? In the Marxist version of Chinese history, the Taiwanese leaders are the bourgeois capitalist
lackeys of Western imperialists. The nationalists teach their children that the Red Chinese overthrew the
legitimate Chinese government in 1949, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people in the process. They
point out that Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s caused a famine that killed thirty million
Chinese and that Beijing has yet to hold a free democratic election. At present, the differences in these histories are
a clear reflection of the political stalemate across the Strait of Taiwan.

FIGURE 1.5 Japanese soldiers in Manchuria in the 1930s. SOURCE: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-
DIG-ggbain-22229.

Another potential Asian flashpoint is the Chinese-Japanese relationship. Despite—or perhaps because of—a
tremendous increase in economic intercourse between the two countries in the past decade, contested nationalist
histories create tensions. It strikes a raw nerve in China when the Japanese whitewash the brutality and cruelty of
their invasion and occupation of China in 1937, or when the Japanese downplay the destruction of the incident
the Chinese call the “rape of Nanjing.”
Japanese leaders often pander to right-wing nationalists by paying homage to fallen Japanese soldiers at the
Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where convicted war criminals are also buried. The Chinese leadership is always
outraged at this pilgrimage, which they view as an implicit sanction for Japanese aggression in China. Japanese
nationalists prefer to emphasize the industrial progress that Japanese imperialists brought to continental Asia.
In 2007, the Japanese prime minister claimed that women in conquered areas—so-called comfort women—
willingly entered into prostitution to serve Japanese soldiers. Some Japanese scholars have discovered convincing
documentary evidence that the Japanese army had a program to set up military brothels in Korea, China, and
Southeast Asia.
“History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake,” lamented Stephen Dedalus, an Irish character in
James Joyce’s Ulysses. Joyce’s Haines, an Englishman, understood the plight of the Irish: “I can quite understand
that an Irish man must think like that, I dare say. We feel in England that we have treated you rather unfairly. It

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seems history is to blame” (Joyce [1922] 1984, 38). It is a sign of a mature democratic society when scholars enjoy
the freedom to criticize their own people for crimes against humanity. Germans have conducted a thorough
examination of the Holocaust and other atrocities committed in their name by the Third Reich. The South
African Truth and Reconciliation Commission has tried to reconstruct the crimes of the South African apartheid
regime in an effort to move race relations and democracy forward. Confronted with a mountain of physical
evidence of the mass murder of Bosnian Muslims by Serbs in Srebrenica in 1995, the new democratic government
in Belgrade has hunted down and prosecuted the perpetrators. In contrast, authoritarian regimes imprison or kill
their critics, rather than seek absolution for past crimes committed by the state.

WHAT IS GOOD HISTORY?

If all history is subjective, how can we trust any rendition of the past? The recent worldwide expansion of
written and electronic media now puts thousands of different sources at one’s fingertips. Much to the chagrin of
history teachers, students can cull sources from websites of unknown credibility.
Obviously, some sources are more trustworthy than others. The historical field, like medicine or law, has
professional historical associations and professional journals. For example, the American Historical Association
publishes the American Historical Review, and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations publishes
Diplomatic History. Articles are refereed by other historians. Reputable publishing houses and university presses
put prospective books through a similar vetting process.
Some university presses will even operate at a loss to ensure that important new research is published, even if
the work is not marketable to a general audience. Histories published by a reputable university press are generally
more reliable than private television productions, the popular press, blogs, or other websites of doubtful reliability.
Universities and research centers in the free world hire historians on the basis of their professional training and
prior publishing record. These institutions afford scholars the opportunity to write without fear of political reprisal
or pressure to turn a profit.
Popular histories are less accurate narratives of the past, but they have a great capacity to influence public
opinion. If authors must convince an editor of the marketability of their work, they will be tempted to embellish
the story. A question often posed regarding historical novels and movies is whether or not they are historically
accurate. It is a fair question if one recognizes that the producer will add dramatic effect whether or not it has any
connection to the known historical record. Movies such as Titanic, Lincoln, and Twelve Years a Slave, or novels
such as The Da Vinci Code, attract mass audiences because they combine realism with a captivating, if not entirely
accurate, version of past events.

THEORIES OF HISTORY
Historians construct theories of the past to explain and understand the human condition. Theories guide the
historian’s method, approach, and sources. For example, Western historians have tried to explain Europe’s rise to
global ascendancy in the last five centuries. Some theorize that the key factor was Europe’s advantageous
geographical and climatic position, the balance of power among European states that spawned intense scientific
and technological competition, or Europeans’ navigational skills and resistance to disease. Others emphasize
Christianity and its peculiar rational means to understand the Bible and the world. Historians use available
evidence to test these hypotheses, although theory will often determine the direction of their research.
The historical debate about the origins of humans between evolutionists and those who believe in intelligent
design hinges on the testability of these respective approaches. Evolution can be verified or disproven through
observation, but intelligent design is a belief that cannot be subjected to the rigors of the historical method.
Intelligent design is not provable.
Some people think of history as providential (Benjamin 1991, 12–13). From this perspective, meaning in life
derives from the belief that a higher power is operating in the world, if not always in explicable ways. God must
have had some reason for unleashing the hurricane that devastated New Orleans in 2005, the catastrophic
flooding in Louisiana, or the earthquake in central Italy in 2016. Some people believe that God has given their
nation a special mission to fight evil (often another nation), promote global freedom, or spread their religion and
culture. This view, like other determinist theories of history, reduces the importance of individual free will and
responsibility. Most professional historians leave the question of divine intervention and the meaning of life to
philosophers and theologians and instead concentrate on the historical events they can observe.
Another way to make sense of the past is a progressive view of history. In the early nineteenth century, German
philosopher Georg Hegel wrote that as new ideas challenged old traditions, a new synthesis would result to

25
develop better political, economic, and social structures. In other words, through education and rising standards of
living, people can rid society of past wrongs such as slavery, war, and inequality, and learn to live in peace and
harmony. This is an essential element of Western thought, and it provides the rationale for universal education
and liberal democracy. Marxism is also a progressive view of history. The end of history will be a utopian, classless
society, in Marx’s words, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” (Marx, 1875).
A more pessimistic theory of history is that the past is cyclical. In other words, there are discernible patterns in
the past that are likely to repeat themselves. In the history of capitalism, for example, economies have cycles of
growth and recession. Some realists argue that any new rising power will challenge the power of the older, and a
military clash is likely. Those who adhere to this view of history foresee an inevitable Sino-American conflict over
dominance in Asia.
These theories of history bring some rationality and meaning to our daily lives. We are most uncomfortable
with the randomness of historical events. When we read of a murder in the newspaper, we are comforted to find
out that the perpetrator knew the victim. No one wants to contemplate walking down the street and being killed
by a stranger. Random violence has no meaning, and there is no way to avoid it. Terrorists can create a
disproportionate fear in people, although we have a greater chance of getting hit by lightning than dying in a
terrorist act. Over three thousand people simply went to work on September 11, 2001, and died in the terrorists’
attacks. Highway deaths worldwide vastly dwarf the terrorists’ death toll, but people’s fears of dying in a car crash
are not great enough to create the political will to do much about it.
Casinos have capitalized on people’s desires to believe in logic and patterns of the past. Roulette wheels now
have a “history board” informing potential players of the numbers and colors that have hit in the last several hours.
Suppose, for example, that “red seven” has not come up all day. By what mathematicians call the law of
independent trials, red seven has no better odds of hitting on the next or any subsequent spin of the wheel than
does any other number, including those that have already come up, perhaps even several times. Nonetheless,
people passing by the history board impulsively plunk their money down on red seven on the expectation that it is
due to come up.
Historians try to identify some patterns in the past to help understand the present, but historians do not agree
about which variables caused events. Causation is one of the trickiest problems in writing about the past, and
historians’ conclusions can have far-reaching effects on future policies. If Germany were mainly responsible for the
catastrophe of World War I, then the Germans should have paid with an even harsher treaty than Versailles. If one
believes that U.S. containment policy caused the fall of Soviet communism, not Soviet Premier Mikhail
Gorbachev’s bold new foreign policies, then American leaders might exaggerate U.S. power to influence world
politics in any way it wants. The essential question in the war on terror is this: Did U.S. policies cause September
11, or did the terrorists merely hate the United States because it is free? How historians answer these questions has
a direct impact on the way we think about the present. The dilemma for policymakers is that historians have many
different answers to the same questions.
Historians often elevate their particular focus on the past to create a theory of causation. Environmental
historians might emphasize climate, environment, geography, and natural resources to explain human
development (Diamond 2003, 2005). Political historians study power relationships and the influence of leaders’
decisions on social systems and people’s lives. Marxists believe that economic relationships are the main
determinants of human history, while intellectual historians raise the significance of ideas to cause change.
International studies not only employs an interdisciplinary approach to global issues but also recognizes that many
independent or interdependent forces can influence human behavior and cause historical events.

ARE THERE LESSONS OF HISTORY?

An old history essay question asks students to compare and contrast certain events, implying that there are
discernible patterns of history from which to draw lessons. People often express the belief that “history tells us” to
make a particular choice, but the relationship among the past, present, and future is a conundrum, a puzzle with
many missing pieces. Geographers can help us understand where we stand and where we are going, but history
cannot always tell us what will happen along the way or if or when we will get there. Human agents can alter
history in unforeseen ways, and events take accidental turns that are dependent on random occurrences.
Policymakers frequently invoke historical analogies to make and justify decisions, in the belief that history
teaches particular lessons. Yet historians and philosophers are not so sure. Hegel said that what we learn from
history is that we do not learn from history. Aphorisms such as “history repeats itself” or “those who do not
remember history are condemned to repeat it” are based on the notion that history is something we can know and
build predictive models from.
Historical analogies provide clarity, rationality, and logic to current affairs, and historians often contribute to

26
the idea that history teaches great lessons by declaring that certain works are “definitive” or “the last word.”
Obviously, decision making requires comparison to previous policy successes and failures, but historical analogy
drawn from unique events can lead policymakers down a dark alley. Erroneous presumptions about what
happened in the past constrain an accurate analysis of and creative thinking about the present.
Definitive lessons of history are impossible to derive from different accounts and interpretations of the past.
Many scholars have debated the causes of World War I, but what lessons do policymakers draw if there is
disagreement about how and why the war started? Economists would make a killing in the stock market if
economic history allowed them to predict the ups and downs of the stock exchanges.
Policymakers are often blinded by their beliefs about the past that may not have any application for the present.
For example, American policymakers during the Cold War consistently used the appeasement of Hitler before
World War II to argue against accommodation with the Soviet Union, which they cast as a similarly aggressive,
totalitarian dictatorship. The United States acted on the erroneous assumption that if Vietnam fell to the
Communists, the dominos in Asia would fall like the East European countries had to the Nazis in the late 1930s.
The failure in Vietnam created another “lesson of history” that warned against armed intervention into civil
conflicts, with devastating consequences in places like Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s. In the run-up to the
United States’ war in Iraq in 2003, the George W. Bush administration argued that if the United States could
successfully occupy Germany and Japan after World War II, it could surely handle the occupation of Iraq, a much
smaller country. That historical analogy turned out to be wrong, as well.
Historical events, unlike scientific experiments, can never be replicated. History often yields analogies for
decision makers that are more dangerous than using no history at all. Historian Barbara Tuchman cautioned,
“The trouble is that in human behavior and history it is impossible to isolate or repeat a given set of
circumstances” (Tuchman 1981, 249).

CONCLUSION
Although past histories cannot provide blueprints for the future, a thorough grounding in contemporary world
history is essential for understanding current global issues, and honest and accurate histories are indispensable for
human progress and reconciliation of international conflicts. The issues confronting future generations are simply
too important to ignore past history.
Many international conflicts today cannot be resolved without agreement about what happened in the past,
from Japan acknowledging its aggression in the Far East in the 1930s to Israel admitting that many Palestinians
were forced from their homes when the state of Israel was created after World War II. Professional historians are
charged with writing histories that are as true to the facts as possible and to act as critics of those who warp the
story of the past for political or economic gain.
A thorough reading of history is an essential part of a comprehensive understanding of the world today. All of
the other social sciences of international studies are based on an accurate picture of the past. Political scientists use
case studies to develop theories of political behavior. Likewise, economists examine previous trends to analyze the
present and hypothesize about the best economic policies. Geographers depend on accurate measurements of
previous climatic and environmental developments to explain current affairs. Finally, anthropologists are
essentially historians of people and their social behaviors.

References
Benjamin, Jules. 1991. A Student’s Guide to History. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Bryson, Bill. 2003. A Short History of Nearly Everything. New York: Broadway Books.
Dalrymple, William. 2005. “India: The War over History.” New York Review of Books, April 7.
Diamond, Jared. 2003. Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York: Spark Publishers.
——. 2005. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking Press.
Joyce, James. [1922] 1984. Ulysses. New York: Garland Publishing.
Marx, Karl. “Critique of the Gotha Programme,” 1875. www.marxists.org.
Tuchman, Barbara W. 1981. Practicing History: Selected Essays. New York: Knopf.
Westfall, Richard S. 1993. The Life of Isaac Newton. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Further Reading
Books
Anderson, Sheldon. 2008. Condemned to Repeat It: “Lessons of History” and the Making of U.S. Cold War Containment Policy. Lanham, MD:

27
 Lexington Books.
Carr, Edward H. 1961. What Is History? New York: Vintage Books.
Collingwood, R. G. 1946. The Idea of History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gardiner, Juliet. 1988. What Is History? London: Humanities Press International.
Hoffer, Charles, and William W. Stueck. 1994. Reading and Writing American History: An Introduction to the Historian’s Craft. Lexington, MA: D. C.
Heath.
Howard, Michael. 1991. The Lessons of History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Journals
American Historical Review. www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/american-historical-review
Cold War History. www.tandfonline.com/loi/fcwh20
Diplomacy and Statecraft. www.tandfonline.com/loi/fdps20
Diplomatic History. academic.oup.com/dh
Journal of Contemporary History. journals.sagepub.com/home/jch
Journal of World History. www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/t-journal-of-world-history.aspx

Films
Citizen Kane (1941). Orson Welles, director.
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). Stanley Kramer, director.
Rashomon (1950). Akira Kurosawa, director.
The Thin Blue Line (1988). Erroll Morris, director.
Triumph of the Will (1934). Leni Riefenstahl, director.

Websites
American Historical Association. www.historians.org/teaching/links
International Interdisciplinary Organization of Scholars. networks.h-net.org/
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. www.shafr.org
World History Association. www.thewha.org
WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs. www2.etown.edu/vl/

28
 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
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
ugly, half-fledged young ones. I wonder, by the by, why a wood-
pigeon is so amazingly careless about its nest building. I never can
understand how it is that the young ones do not fall off the rough
platform of sticks which is their apology for a nest. And it must be
shockingly cold and draughty, too. Birds are supposed to be ahead
of all other nest-builders, but I can tell you there are a good many
besides the wood-pigeon who might take a few pointers in
architecture from us squirrels, to say nothing of our distant cousin
the door-mouse.
A sharp rat-a-tat just behind startled me, and there was a big
green woodpecker hanging on tight against the trunk of our own
larch with his strong claws, and pounding the bark with his hammer-
like beak. Father looked at him with interest.
‘Ah,’ he observed, ‘it’s about time we did move. The old tree must
be getting rotten, or we shouldn’t have a visit from him.’
It was all most pleasant and peaceful as we sat there—Rusty,
Hazel, and I—enjoying the gentle swinging in the soft west wind, and
waiting for mother to come home.
It was a very fine summer, that one. I have never seen one like it
since. We had very little rain and no storms for weeks on end, and
the crops of mast and nuts were splendid.
But I am running ahead too fast. The very next day after our
narrow escape from the two loafers, father set to work to make a
new house in the fir-tree he had spoken of. Luckily for him, there was
an old carrion crow’s nest handy in the top branches, and he got
plenty of sticks out of this for the framework. Mother helped him to
gather some moss—nice dry stuff from the roots of a beech, and he
made a tidy job of it within three days. Of course, he did not build so
elaborately as if he had been constructing a winter nest—we
squirrels never do. But all the same, he put a good water-tight roof
over it.
Meantime mother had been keeping us youngsters hard at work
with our climbing and jumping lessons. We all got on very well, and
the day before we were to move she actually let me come down to
the ground. It was the funniest feeling coming down so low, and at
first I cannot say that I liked it. There was no spring in the earth, and
one did not seem able to get a good hold for one’s claws. The pine-
needles slipped away when one tried to jump. However, after the first
novelty wore off, I enjoyed the new sensation hugely, and my joy
was complete when mother showed me a little fat brown beetle
which she said I might eat. I tried it, and really it might have been a
nut, it was so crisp and plump.
Rusty and Hazel were sitting on a bough overhead, and as full of
envy as ever they could be, for mother had said that she really could
not have more than one of us at a time down among the dangers of
the ground, and that I was the only one quick enough to look after
myself if anything happened.
My quickness was fated to be tested. While mother was scratching
about the tree-roots, having a hunt for any stray nuts of last autumn’s
store that might hitherto have been overlooked, I moved off to see if I
could not discover another of those tasty beetles. At a little distance
lay a great log, the slowly-rotting remains of a tall tree that had been
torn up by the roots in some winter gale many years before, and was
now half buried in the ground. On its far side was a perfect thicket of
bracken, and a great bramble grew in the hollow where the roots of
the tree had once been, and hid the fast decaying trunk. There was a
curious earthy smell about the place which somehow attracted me. I
know now that it was from a sort of fungus which grows in the rotten
wood, and is quite good to eat, but at that time I was still too young
to understand this. However, I went gaily grubbing about, and at last
ventured on the very top of the log and pattered down it towards the
trunk end. Near the butt was a hollow in the worm-eaten wood. The
bramble was thick on all sides, but there was an opening above
through which a patch of bright sunlight leaked down. In the middle
of this dry, warm cavity was a small coil of something of almost the
same colour as the wood on which it lay. At first I took it for a twisted
stick, but it attracted me strangely, and I gradually moved nearer. It
was not until I came to the very edge of the hollow and sat up on my
hind-legs that I suddenly became aware that the odd coil had a little
diamond-shaped head, in which were set two beady eyes. There
was a horrible cold, cruel look in those unwinking eyes which had a
strange effect upon me. I turned cold and stiff, and felt as if, for the
very life of me, I could not move. Suddenly a forked tongue flickered
out, the dead coil took life, I saw the muscles ripple below the ashen
skin. It was that movement which saved me. As the horrid head
flashed forward, I leaped high into the air. The narrow head and two
thin, keen fangs gleaming white passed less than my own length
below me, and I fell into the thick of the bramble, the worst scared
squirrel in the wood. How I scrambled out I have no idea, but in
another instant I was scuttling back to my mother, full of my direful
tale.
When I told her what had happened she looked very grave.
‘It was an adder,’ she said, shivering. ‘If it had bitten you, you
would have been dead before sunset. Keep close to me, Scud.’
The next day we moved into our new quarters in the fir-tree.
Personally, I never liked a fir so well as most other trees. It is so dark
and gloomy, and you get so little sun. My own preference has always
been for a beech. An old beech has such delightful nooks and
crannies, and often deep holes, sometimes deep and large enough
to build a winter home in—always capital for the storage of nuts.
There was no doubt, however, that the fir which father had chosen
had many points to recommend it. It was an immensely tall tree, and
thick as a hedge, yet there were no branches close to the ground to
tempt evil-minded young humans like our recent invaders to climb
up. What was still better, so cunningly had father chosen his site that
it was quite impossible for any evil-minded, two-legged creatures to
see us from below. Our nest was founded on a large, flat-topped
branch close in to the thick red trunk, and only about two-thirds of
the way up to the top. Another branch almost equally thick formed a
roof over our heads, so that we were very snug and comfortable.
 CHAPTER II
THE GREAT DISASTER

The day on which the great disaster befell us was wet in the early
morning, and when the sun rose a thick, soft mist, white like cotton-
wool, hung over the country-side. Not a breath of air was stirring,
and it was so intensely still that it seemed as though one could hear
everything that moved from one end of the wood to the other. The
plop of a water-rat diving into a pool in the stream on the far side of
the coppice came as clearly to my ears as though the water had
been at the bottom of our own tree instead of several hundred yards
away, and when the wood-pigeons began to move unseen in the
smother, the clatter of their wings was positively startling.
We squirrel folk are not fond of wet, so we lay still and snug in our
cosy retreat until the sun began to eat up the mist. Soon the grey
smother thinned and sank, leaving the tree-tops bathed in brilliant
light, every twig dripping with moisture, and every drop sparkling with
intense brilliance. Then we crept out one by one, and, sitting up
straight upon our haunches, began our morning toilet. No other
woodland creature is so careful and tidy in its habits as a squirrel,
and mother had already thoroughly instructed us in the proper
methods of using our paws as brushes and our tongues as sponges,
and in making ourselves neat and smart as self-respecting, healthy
squirrels should be.
Suddenly a peal of distant bells came clanging through the moist,
calm air with such a vibrating note that they made us all start. Father
sat up sharply, and mother asked him what was the matter.
He explained to us that he had learnt by experience that when
those bells rang out it was a dangerous time for us, for all the
mischievous boys and rough fellows in the neighbourhood seemed
to appear in the woods, and the keeper was never seen. He did not
know why this should be, but from long custom he had grown to be
uneasy at the sound.
Mother shuddered sympathetically, and rubbed against him
caressingly, with a movement that told him not to worry, and she
reminded him consolingly that even if our tormentors did take it into
their heads to come into the wood they would not be likely to find us,
since we had moved.
But father, instead of responding, suddenly pricked up his ears,
and, signalling to us to be quiet, listened eagerly to some sound
which the rest of us had not yet caught. For a moment he sat up
straight, as still as though stuffed; then he turned and spoke sharply,
with a warning sound that told us to lie as still as mice, for some
danger was approaching.
Sure enough, a minute later we all heard the warning cry of a
frightened blackbird, and immediately afterwards the brushing and
trampling of a number of heavy boots through the wet grass and fern
in the distance. At once we all stretched ourselves out tight as bark
along the flat bough which formed the foundation of our nest, and lay
there still as so many sleeping dormice.
The steps came rapidly nearer, and soon voices sounded plainly
through the hush of the quiet wood. Imagine how I shuddered when I
recognized the coarse tones of our former enemies mixed with
others equally harsh and unpleasant! They were making straight for
our part of the wood.
Shaking though I was in every limb, curiosity drove me to peep
cautiously over the edge of the bough. The mist was all gone now,
and there, below the tall larch-tree which had been our old home and
the scene of our recent narrow escape, stood four young louts, our
old enemies and two others about the same size and age, all craning
their necks and staring upwards through the thick, pale-green
branches. Each was carrying in his right hand a short, flexible stick
with a heavy head. These were not long enough for walking-sticks,
such as Crump, the keeper, and other humans who sometimes came
through the wood carried; and, in spite of my fright, I wondered
greatly what they were for. Alas! it was not long before I learnt the
terrible powers of the cruel ‘squailer.’
After a good deal of argument and dispute one of the new-comers
swung himself up on to the lowest bough. He climbed far better and
faster than the one who had tried before, and in a very short time
had reached a bough close below our old drey.
By this time I was getting over my fright a little. I turned to Rusty,
who was next me.
‘What a sell for them when they find no one at home!’ I whispered
in his ear.
But Rusty only grunted, and a sharp signal for silence came from
father.
The bough which had been broken before stopped the climber for
a few moments, but presently he managed to swarm up the trunk
and seat himself astride of the very branch upon which our former
home was founded.
They shouted to him from below to be careful. The fellow in the
tree paid no heed, but, clutching the trunk with one hand to steady
himself, boldly thrust the other into the nest. There was a sharp
exclamation of disgust; and he cried out furiously that there was
nothing there.
They were all in great excitement, and kept urging him to look
further and to make sure we weren’t hiding. He felt in every crevice
of the nest, and peered about in the boughs, and then, having
evidently made up his mind we had really gone, prepared to
descend.
But the others called to him to look again, so, steadying himself
once more upon the bough, he peered upward. Then he solemnly
declared, shaking his head, that there was nothing in the tree. To
prove it, with a sweep of his great red paw, he carelessly ripped our
old home from its perch and sent it tumbling to the ground. I heard
mother give a little gasp as she saw destroyed in an instant the
results of so many hours of careful and loving toil; but my own
thoughts and eyes were so concentrated upon the invader of our
rightful domain that I am afraid I hardly considered her injured
feelings. Still they would not allow him to come down; and now came
in a very real danger. From the ground it would have been quite
impossible for them to spy us out in our new quarters, but up the tree
this fellow was on a level with us, and had only to get a clear look
between the boughs to spy our little red bodies, which, however
much we crouched together, made a considerable ball of fur.
Climbing to his feet, he stood upright on the bough, clinging with
one arm to the trunk. It was this movement which proved our
undoing. Standing thus, his head was clear of the dwindling foliage
near the spire-like summit of the larch, and from his lofty perch his
eye commanded the tree-tops in the neighbourhood. A moment later
his gaze fell upon us, five small scared balls of red fur, and his roar
of triumph struck terror to our quaking hearts.
Without paying the slightest attention to the shouted questions of
his friends below, he swung himself down hand over hand, and in a
very short time had dropped to the ground, and was running across
towards our fir-tree, with the others yelping at his heels like a pack of
harriers after a hare.
Mother and father exchanged a few hurried words, but what they
said I in my excitement had not the faintest idea. Next moment father
had me by the scruff of the neck, and darted away up into the thick
and almost impenetrable top of the giant fir. Mother, with Hazel
between her teeth, came after him like a flash.
The fir-trunk forked near the summit; it was to this point that father
carried me, and dropped me in the niche between the two boughs.
Instantly he was off again to fetch Rusty. Before our enemies had
noticed what was happening, and while they were still arguing as to
which of them should do the climbing, all we three youngsters had
been deposited together in our lofty refuge.
A scuffling noise and the sound of heavy breathing came from
below. One of the gang had begun the ascent of the tree. Mother
looked at father in a sort of dumb agony. She was palpitating with
fright, and her dark eyes were large and brilliant with terror.
 ‘Can we reach another tree, Redskin?’ she asked tremblingly.
But father knew better, and signified, ‘No.’ They two might have
done it themselves, but carrying us the jump would be too long to
risk.
From far below the bumping, scuffling noise slowly grew louder
and nearer. It was a long way up to the first bough of the fir-tree, and
the climber—it was the same one again—was obliged to swarm the
scaly red trunk. We could not, of course, see anything of him, for the
matted tangle of crooked branches below, with their foliage of thick,
dark green needles, formed an impenetrable screen.
I cannot even now remember that long wait in the sunny tree-top,
while ever from below the unseen danger crept upon us, without an
unpleasant thrill, and I know that both my brother and my sister
shared my feelings. The worst part of it all was the sight of the terror
of our father, who had always been to us a pattern of bravery. The
fact was that he realized the position, which we younger ones did not
do fully. He was only too well aware that we were trapped. He and
mother might have easily escaped by descending to the longer
branches below, and thence jumping into a spruce which grew close
by; but they would not desert us, and both remained clinging tightly
to the main trunk just beside us.
The hollow in which my brother and sister and I were placed gave
us complete shelter from below, but there was only just room for the
three of us. Father and mother were forced to expose themselves.
The fir was, as I have said before, a very large tree—quite seventy
feet high—old, thick, and gnarled, and the boughs were of
considerable thickness near to its very summit. Father no doubt
understood that our bulky enemy would, if he had the pluck, be able
to pursue us right up to our lofty perch, and was aware of our almost
hopeless position.
Slowly, very slowly, our persecutor came upwards. The branches,
once he was among them, were so close and thick that he evidently
found it difficult to force his way between them. Every now and then
he would stop and puff and blow; then the creaking of large boughs
and the cracking of small twigs announced a fresh effort on his part.
 At last he was only separated from our second nest by a very
small interval. Yet he had not discovered it was empty. The others
kept yelling out questions to him, but he made no reply, only forced
his way through the tree, which, I am bound to say, was very thick
indeed.
More scrambling. Then he caught sight of the nest and redoubled
his efforts. But when he was nearly up to it he reached up his arm,
and without the slightest fear that he might be bitten as his
companion had been, thrust his huge hand into it. The result was a
savage exclamation. Angrily he seized the empty nest, tore it out,
and sent it flying down as he had done the other.
By this time the others were a little tired of waiting, and began to
scatter out from the tree to try to spy us themselves. Common sense
must have told them that we had only left the nest when we heard
them, and could not be far, and that we could probably be seen
somewhere in the surrounding boughs. A few moments’ suspense,
and then the awful warning shout again told us we were discovered.
The man was still in the tree, though some way below, and by
pointing and gesticulations they directed him where to go to find us.
So he came panting up again, the thinner branches swaying and
rustling beneath his weight. After a very few moments his head
appeared in the greenery below. He was of a different type from the
others, taller, black-haired, and sallow-faced. It did not take him
many seconds to see us, and he quickly pulled himself up towards
us.
With his eyes fixed on mother, he came rapidly upwards. Mother
crouched where she was on a small branch, very close to the
extreme summit of the tree, watching our enemy’s every movement.
By a lucky chance the main stem hid us three youngsters from his
sight. I think that father and mother must have purposely placed
themselves on the other side from us with the express object of
drawing the boy’s attention away from their helpless babies.
When he drew near he paused, and pulling a red cotton
handkerchief from his pocket, deliberately wrapped it round one
hand. Then, getting a good grip with the other, he edged outwards
and made a sudden rapid grasp at mother. My heart almost stopped
as I saw the great hand extended. But quick as he was, no human
can hope to rival the lightning action of a squirrel’s muscles, and
before the grasping hand touched her the little lithe red body flew
into the air as though driven by a spring, and, flashing downwards,
landed fully twenty feet below, and disappeared into the thickest part
of the tree.
With a violent exclamation the tormentor turned his attention to
father, who was only a foot or two further away, and crouching on the
extreme outer end of a bough. Evidently he intended to make sure of
him, for he worked himself round so as to get between father and the
tree, and managed it so well that he seemed to me to have cut off all
chance of escape. I think he must have actually touched father’s tail,
when the most unexpected thing happened. Instead of jumping
outwards, which, as the bough tip projected a good way, would in all
probability have ended in a fall to the ground, into the very hands of
the three watchers below, father leaped straight towards the boy,
landing actually on his shoulder. This startled him so much that he
very nearly let go altogether, and if I had not been in such a panic I
could have laughed at his fright. Then, before the boy could recover
himself, another quick bound, and father was out on another branch,
ten feet away, quite out of reach of his would-be captor.
 FATHER LEAPED STRAIGHT TOWARDS THE BOY LANDING ACTUALLY ON
HIS SHOULDER

A torrent of language worse than any magpie’s burst from the

fellow’s lips, as he turned and scrambled after father again. He might
as well have tried to catch a will-o’-the-wisp. Every time he got near
enough to make a snatch, father would make another nimble jump,
all the time artfully luring his pursuer lower down the tree and away
from our hiding-place.
The game went on for a good ten minutes, and by the end of that
time the enemy was dripping with perspiration and speechless with
fury. His rage was increased by the jeers of his friends below. At last
he gave it up, having made up his mind it was not much of a game to
be made a fool of by a squirrel and mocked by the onlookers.
He dropped quickly from bough to bough, and presently I heard
his heavy boots thud on the ground. But before he had reached the
foot of the tree, both our parents were back with us. Then the sound
of loud wrangling came up to us. Surely now they would go; but no!
we were not safe yet.
There was further talk, and then the whole four spread out in a
circle round the fir-tree. Presently, with a loud whizzing sound, some
heavy object came hurtling up past us. It struck a twig near the
summit of the tree and clipped it like a bullet. Thud! Another struck
the main stem just below us with a force that sent the bark flying in a
shower. Then we saw what those lead-weighted canes were for.
A third squailer passed only a few inches above father’s head. He
called to mother:
‘They’ll kill us if we stop here. Come along; take Hazel and follow
me.’
In an instant he had snatched me up and was scuttling down the
trunk. It was wonderful how exactly he knew which branch-end
stretched furthest towards the spruce which was our next neighbour.
Out along it he ran, and using the natural spring of the bough to help
him, made a gallant leap outwards and downwards, legs and tail
wide spread to assist him in his flight.
The air hissed past my ears, and then with a little thud we landed
safely in the spruce. But his gallant jump had been seen by those
greedy eyes, and excited shouts came from below.
Then—ah, even now I can hardly bear to speak of it! As father was
in the very act of running up the branch towards the thick centre of
the tree and comparative safety, there came a cruel thud, and he
and I together were whirling through the air.
Crash! we came to the ground with a shock that knocked my small
senses out of me, and before I could pick myself up a hard hand had
closed over me. I turned and, with the instinct of despair, fixed my
teeth deep in a horny finger. There was a yell, and I was again flung
to the ground with a force that almost killed me. I knew no more for
many minutes, and when I woke again to stunned and aching
misery, I was lying helpless in a sort of bag, which smelt horribly of
something which I now know to have been tobacco. The bag was
being shaken up and down with a steady swing; but I, almost beside
myself with pain and flight, did not attempt to move or free myself.
Suddenly the motion stopped abruptly, and the hand was poked
cautiously into the bag. It was carefully protected this time by a
handkerchief, but I had no longer spirit left to bite. Out I was pulled
and held up before the gaze of all the four robbers, who were seated
at ease on a mossy bank on the outer side of the hedge close by the
gate of our coppice. The very first thing that my eyes fell upon was
the body of my poor father lying limp upon the bank, his white
waistcoat dabbled with crimson stains and his brilliant black eyes
closed in death. I felt a cold shiver run through me, and the stupor of
despair clutched my beating heart. I hardly even had strength left to
wonder what had become of my dear mother and my brother and
sister.
They passed me from one coarse hot hand to another, and their
voices grew louder and louder as they disputed who should have
possession of me.
They then went on to blows, when suddenly the quarrel was
brought to an abrupt end in a most startling fashion.
Leaping over the hedge out of the coppice behind came two tall,
smart-looking boys, a startling contrast to the four loutish
hobbledehoys around poor little me.
One of them, pointing at me, demanded in a ringing voice where
they had got me from.
 Three of the four cads stood sheepishly regarding the new-
comers, and said never a word; but the one who had climbed the
tree faced them boldly enough, answering impudently.
The new-comer strode up to him. He was evidently master here,
and the others were trespassing, and they knew it, for they slunk
back. Yet, in reply to his reiterated commands, the lout who was
boldest snatched me up and refused to part with me. He was so big
and strong that he seemed a giant, and I felt I should die there and
then. I closed my eyes and gave myself up, but in a minute I was
down on the bank once more, and the two—the new-comer and the
great rough fellow—were fighting hard, with coats off and red faces.
The sound of the blows that followed, the tramping of feet, the
hard breathing of the combatants, nearly deprived me of the few
senses that remained to me, and I noticed little of the details of the
fight—only it seemed to last a long time, and once I saw the
schoolboy flat on his back. But he was up almost as soon as down,
and they were at it again hammer and tongs.
The giant made a rush head down, like a bull, but the other
jumped back, and there followed a rattle of blows as my champion’s
fists got home on the lout’s hard head. But the squire’s son did not
wholly escape. The huge fist that had grasped me so roughly caught
him on the right cheek and drove him back.
One of my champion’s eyes was closing, his right cheek was
turning livid, and there was blood on his broad white collar when they
faced one another again. But the ruffian for his part, though not so
badly marked, was breathing like a fat pug dog and seemed
unsteady on his legs. To do the fellow justice, he had pluck, for he
wasted no time in making a last attempt to rush his opponent. For a
few moments it was all that the other could do to guard his head
against the swinging fists. Then—it was all so quick that one could
hardly see what happened—there was a crack like the sound two
rams make when they charge one another, and the giant tottered for
a moment, his arms waving wildly, then fell like a log and lay quite
still.
 The other new-comer counted loud and slowly ‘One—two—three
—four’—up to ten. But the fellow on the ground did not move.
‘That’s the finish,’ he said.
He turned to where I lay, with hardly a breath in me, a little limp
body, and picking me up, handled me tenderly.
Terrified as I was, the change was grateful to my miserable, aching
little body. He offered me to the victor in the fight, who had by this
time got into his coat again, but he declined.
‘Put him in your pocket, Harry,’ he said to his brother. ‘My hands
are too hot to hold him.’
He was quite right. Let me here give a word of advice to all those
humans who keep any of my race as pets. Don’t hold us in your
hands. In the first place, it frightens us desperately, and in the
second, it is bad for us. A squirrel rarely lives long in captivity if he is
constantly handled. I speak from experience, and I can assure you
that, much as I grew to love my dear master and my other human
friends, I was never happy in their hands, though I never minded
being kept in their pockets.
Harry put me carefully in the inside pocket of his jacket. It was
dark and warm, and, utterly exhausted, I curled up and lay quiet, and
so I was carried away and left the home of my babyhood. It was long
before I saw it again.
 CHAPTER III
THE PLEASURES OF IMPRISONMENT

I was aroused from a sort of stupor between sleep and exhaustion

by being picked out of my snug retreat and held up for inspection
before a third person, a sweet-faced lady, whom I afterwards came
to know well and love as the mother of my dear master, Jack
Fortescue, and his brother Harry.
She looked at me pitifully when her son had quickly explained the
events of the morning. Her fingers were long and slim and cool, and,
poor limp little rag that I was, I never offered the slightest resistance
to her gentle grasp. She took me straight through a side door into a
long, low, shady building with wood-lined walls, and in a minute or
two I was placed in a nest of soft hay in a good-sized box covered in
front with close wire-netting. Too worn out to trouble my head about
the amazing and perplexing change in my circumstances, I simply
curled up with my tail over my nose and went sound asleep.
It was Jack who woke me. I must have been asleep for a long
time, for now the sun was pouring in through the western windows.
The first thing I realized was that I was desperately hungry, and that
the little saucer which the boy had pushed gently into the cage had a
most appetizing odour. But my sleep had given me fresh life and
strength, and quiet as his movements were, I remember that I was
desperately frightened, and cowered down, shivering, burrowing
close in the hay.
Jack seemed to understand perfectly, for he closed the door again
very softly and moved away. Presently the silence restored my
confidence a little, and I ventured to peep out. The saucer was quite
close to my nose, and, hunger overpowering my fright, I crawled up
and tasted the mixture. It was bread and milk, soft and well cooked. I
finished it very rapidly, and then, feeling much refreshed, went to
sleep for a second time.
Once again before dark Jack came and fed me, and this time
brought me a couple of ready cracked nuts, as well as the bread and
milk.
Well fed and cared for as I was, I shall never forget the misery of
that first night. I don’t suppose that at that very early age I actually
remembered much of what had happened during the past eventful
day. What I did feel was a sort of horror of loneliness. Instead of the
whole five of us snuggling warmly together in our well-lined drey, I
was here in this box, which was many times larger than our nest,
absolutely alone. Every time I went to sleep I would wake up again
with a start, vaguely feeling round for my mother and the rest, and
shivering miserably in my unaccustomed solitude.
At last morning came, and it was hardly broad daylight before Jack
arrived in his nightshirt and carried me off, cage and all, to his
bedroom, where he put me on the window-ledge in the sun and
offered me nuts. At first I was much alarmed; but he was so gentle
that I gradually got over my terror, and sat up and nibbled the nuts
fairly happily.
I will pass over the next few days. My new master fed me
assiduously, and very soon I lost all fear of him, and the minute I saw
him would make for the door of my comfortable little prison, and wait
eagerly for the dainties which were sure to be forthcoming. Every
morning he changed my bed and gave me fresh hay, which makes
far the best bedding for any of our tribe. During the day my cage was
brought down into the bowling-alley, where several other pets were
kept, and at night Jack took me up to his room, so that I might not be
frightened by servants dusting in the morning.
At last there came a morning when Jack’s hand, instead of offering
me the usual nut, gently grasped me. Frightened, I turned at once
and bit him sharply. I don’t suppose my small teeth did much
damage, for he only laughed, and, lifting me right out of the cage,
placed me on his bed. The white counterpane was so very different
from anything which I had ever felt under my claws before, that at
first I was too much surprised to move, and remained perfectly still.
Presently, however, Jack popped a nut down in front of me. That, at
any rate, I understood, so I sat up on my hind-quarters, cracked it,
and, first carefully removing the brown skin from the kernel, made
short work of the dainty.
Hoping for more, I gained confidence and proceeded to explore.
First I caught my claws in the little projecting tufts of the
counterpane, and heard Jack laughing gently as I shook myself
impatiently free, giving a little squeak of disgust. Presently I
discovered a cavity that looked dark and inviting. You know a
squirrel’s besetting sin is curiosity. He always wants to know the ins
and outs of everything. Any object which he has not seen before
fascinates him, and I am afraid to say how many of my friends have
paid for their inquisitiveness by getting into serious trouble. So I
crawled down, and finding it delightfully warm and dark, made my
way under the clothes to the very foot of the bed, where, as I was
very comfortable, I went sound asleep.
On the next morning my master turned me loose again, this time
on the floor, and after a fresh access of timidity I again found nuts.
There were more than I wanted, so, obeying a natural instinct, I ate
what I could, and hid the rest in various convenient receptacles.
Soon I began to look forward to my daily outing, and took great
delight in exploring every corner of the room. I well recollect what a
shock I got the first time I reached the window-sill. Outside was a
great elm-tree, whose branches reached within a few yards of the
window, and the sight of the green leaves waving gently in the early
morning breeze roused in me strange longings. I made one jump,
and striking full against the glass, fell back half stunned and terrified
almost out of my wits at the strange transparent barrier. Jack picked
me up at once, and placed me safe in the darkness and warmth
under the bedclothes, where I had time to recover from my fright.
Soon he took to letting me out at bedtime, and I had a grand
scamper before the light was put out. The window-curtains were my
favourite resort. They were so easy to climb, and had such splendid
folds and crannies for hiding nuts in. I would race across the curtain-
pole, rattling the rings as I went, down the other curtain, round the
room full tilt, and finish up with a good hunt in all the corners for nuts
which I had concealed the day before and forgotten all about. I rarely
went back to my cage to sleep, though it was always open and ready
for me. A fold in the window-curtain was my usual place of repose,
and another pet perch was an old band-box on the top of the
wardrobe. It was half full of tissue paper, which possessed a strange
fascination for my young mind. I tore it all up fine with my sharp
teeth, and made a most delicious nest with the bits.
When the night was chilly I generally snuggled under Jack’s
bedclothes, and always, first thing in the morning, so soon as
daylight came, I would make for the bed, and working my way gently
down between the sheets, curl up close against Jack’s toes.
Sometimes he was so sleepy that he would not wake up and play
when I wanted him to; then I would emerge on to the pillow and
gently nibble the tip of his nose.
This never failed. ‘Confound you, Nipper!’ (he always called me
Nipper), he would mutter drowsily, and then make a lazy grab, which
I always eluded with the greatest ease, and with two bounds would
land on the end of the bedstead, and, perched there, scold him until
he sat up and threw a sock at me.
He was never rough, and never lost his temper with me, although I
am sure that I was aggravating enough at times. It must have been
trying when he pulled on his boots in a hurry and found a couple of
nuts wedged tight in each toe. I do not think that a boy and a squirrel
ever became better chums. We were simply devoted to one another.
The only dull times for me were when Jack and Harry were busy with
their tutor, during which hours I was usually in my box in the bowling-
alley.
There, as I think I mentioned before, the Fortescue boys kept
several other pets. There was a large white cockatoo with a lemon
crest, named Joey, which frightened and puzzled me horribly until I
came to understand its odd faculty of imitating every person and
animal about the place. It would ‘miaouw’ like a cat, a most
disturbing sound, for every squirrel hates cats next to hawks and
weasels; would bark so realistically that Mrs. Fortescue’s white
Pomeranian was always stirred up to reply, and the two would go on
and on, the wily old bird always starting up afresh whenever the dog
stopped, until poor Pom nearly had a fit and grew quite hoarse. I
shall never forget the first time he imitated me to my face. It gave me
a most severe shock, for he did it so well that for a moment I
believed that one of my relations was actually in the room. One thing
I liked him for: he was devoted to Jack, and invariably bade him a
grave ‘good morning’ when he brought my cage down before
breakfast. He lived on a perch, to which he was chained by one leg,
and up and down this he would sidle by the hour, with one eye
cocked for mischief. Sometimes, when all was quiet, he would talk to
himself in a language quite unlike that which my master and his
family used. The boys said it was some African lingo which Joey had
learnt ages ago in his native land. Altogether a most uncanny bird!
Harry had a number of pet mice in wire cages. They were not the
least atom like any of the mice I had ever seen in the wood. These
were of the queerest colours—piebald—and some of them had
marks on their backs just the shape of a saddle. Uninteresting I
called them, but Harry was very fond of them, and used to take them
out and let them run all over him.
In the darkest corner of the long, low room was the one creature
that, from the first moment I saw it, interested me more than all the
others put together. All day long it lay hidden in its hay bed and
never moved, but slept quietly as a dormouse in its winter nest. In
fact, I never set eyes on it at all until one night in August, when the
evenings had begun to draw in and I happened to be left a little later
than usual in the bowling-alley. No sooner had the room become
dusk than I heard from the tiny cage a little twittering, more like a
young bird’s voice than anything else, and presently caught sight of
a dainty little head poked out of the hay, with two of the largest, most
liquid black eyes I ever saw. I gazed in wonder, for the animal was so
like myself that I felt sure it was a squirrel, though I had never
dreamed that any squirrel existed so tiny as this.
Just then in came the two boys together.