An Incomplete Education - 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned but Probably Didn't

5^2 AN I N C O M P L E T E

History, per Toynbee, is no
God or Darwin) but a series o
which civilizations—of which
twenty-one—rise, flourish, b
external attacks, but also of in
this Toynbee calls "challenge
from Egyptian and Sumerian
gradually lost its ability to co
the "time of troubles" and, fin
isn't (Hitler was out to create
(see page 579), but for the lat
stitutes mildness and the hope

There's a lot of Toynbee
knowledge, wealth of detail,
to see a pattern in the tea le
long-windedness, and the d
leaves in the bottom of every
additional charges: twisting
untestable conclusions, "pern
at how, along about Volume
ilization, that is "the serious
fessional or passerby, knows
out from his system and lets
Still, no other twentieth-cen
different ages, peoples, and c
the forest even as he's counti
make history seem like quite

THE

Frog historiography is a clubb
they've sat down at the old éc
a single grand enterprise, cons
in case you were wondering, b
teen years of revolution, ano
both 1830 and 1848 and a hu

E EDUCATION

ot the great upward climb (as orchestrated by either
of pulsations, pendulum swings, seasonal cycles, in
h our Western one is but the most recent of exactly
reak down, and fall apart, the victims not only of
nternal failures of nerve. The basic mechanism in all
and response," and he proceeds to illustrate how,
n times down to the present, every civilization has
ope, inevitably succumbing to such unhappiness as
nally, the "universal state," which sounds good, but
ours). Toynbee's system draws heavily on Spengler
tter's love of violence and pagan pessimism it sub­
e of religious salvation.
e to be impressed by: sweep, scope, breadth of
, boldness, conviction, energy, the determination
eaves. And a lot to roll your eyes at: didacticism,
determination to see the same pattern in the tea
y cup in the tearoom. Professional historians bring
of the evidence, procrustean-bed methodology,
nicious determinism." (They're especially annoyed
9, Toynbee announces that it is religion, not civ­
business of the human race.") And nobody, pro­

quite how to behave when Toynbee takes time
s fly with another of those trippy insights of his.
ntury historian has known as much about as many
cultures; has made such a determined effort to see
ing and recounting the trees; or has been able to
e such a big deal.

PARIS BUREAU

by affair. Even the radicals and the firebrands, once
critoire, start to behave as if they're contributing to
solidating a single grand reputation, both of which,
begin with F Still, what other country can boast fif­
other eleven of Napoleon, plus major shakeups in
umiliating defeat at the hands of the Prussians in

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1870? With action like that, mon cher, you
don't have to send your best minds off to
sift through the debris of ancient Rome
just so they'll have something to do.

The great national historian of France is
Jules Michelet (1798-1874), who liked to
think of himself as a child of the Rev­
olution and of the masses who made it;
who singlehandedly "resurrected" medieval
France (complete with Jeanne d'Arc), intu­
iting and emoting what he couldn't piece
together from the archives; and who bit by
bit extended the story through his own day,
becoming more and more bitter, and more
and more biased, as he went along. H i s Del
L'Histoire de France, in six volumes, is kind
of like a magic-carpet ride (he'd bought Mo
geography and climate determine, among other
and he insists on detailing every last hectare of L
D. W. Griffith movie (he'd fortified himself with
man in the street who made history), and—at it
swimming upstream, trying to get back to the ess
as much as possible, the overwhelmingness of wha
man has heart.

Not so most of his colleagues, who tend to be
even clinical turn of mind. There's Henri de S
grand-nephew of the acid-tongued duke who'd
court, who distinguished between "critical" and "o
who plumped for the reorganization of society un
tists, financiers, and industrialists, with artists in
had a big influence on Marx and on John Stuart M
guste Comte (1798-1857), arrogant, dogmatic, an
tory into three stages—the theological, in which
explained things away, lasting until Martin Luther
ism; the metaphysical, in which natural laws acc
from Luther until the French Revolution and the
scientific, in which you reject sweeping generaliz
tions, and wishful thinking in general for the elega
the verifiable law, meant to go on forever. Comte
on-the-road attitude positivism, and he promoted
with the word for and the discipline of sociology, t

And there's that second-half-of-the-century duo,

WORLD HISTORY 583

lacroix's Liberty Leading the People

ontesquieu's old theory that
things, form of government,

L a Belle France), kind of like a
h Vico's belief that it was the
s best—kind of like a salmon
sence of what was by ignoring,
at is. H e won't shut up, but the

of an aggressively theoretical,
aint-Simon (1760-1825), the
skewered Louis X I V and his
organic" phases of civilization;
nder a governing elite of scien­
place of clergymen; and who
Mill. There's his disciple, Au­
nd a bit crazy, who divided his­
h God's will was how people
r made the world safe for athe­
counted for everything, lasting
e rise of the machine; and the
ations, unquestioned assump­
ance of the observable fact and
e called this "scientific," eyes-
d it nonstop; he also came up
the study of man in society.
, Hippolyte Taine (1828-1893)

AN I N C O M P L E T E

and Ernest Renan (1823-1
tional bureau drawers as pos
tory as "mechanics applied t
enough facts, and then were
with all the laws that opera
counting and measuring, but
plus literature and art, into h
announcing that culture is a
gether determine something
vice and virtue are no less ch
Renan, who was less pedanti
science and religion, raison a
things, Christ's Resurrection
"miracle."

Are we forgetting anybod
course, who was more politic
sense to get out of France fo
drew a line between liberty an
the majority" and the distrus
telling everybody about posit
century, the United States w
along with Russia, be one of t

Then there are Braudel and

RO

A century's worth of them for

JACOB BURCKHARDT (1818-
after all these years. True, his
nomics, scanted the peasant
down, but it also came up w
naissance"—of man just turn
painting pictures and practic
tures and practicing statecraf
cool, collected Swiss, with no
of the fourteenth through six
gias, condottieri, Michelangelo

E EDUCATION

892), each devoted to cleaning out as many na­
ssible. Taine, a disciple of Comte, thought of his­
to psychology" and believed that if you assembled
e very, very on the ball, you'd be able to come up
ated on them. H e really wasn't that interested in
t that didn't stop Taine from feeding all of history,
his fact processor, then setting it on "mince"; from
a matter of race, milieu, and moment, which to­
g called la faculté maîtresse; or from positing that
hemically analyzable than sulfuric acid and sugar.
c than Taine and who wrote better besides, yoked
and sensibilité, attempting to explain, among other
n without resorting to words like "divinity" and

dy? Well, Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), of
cal thinker than historian, and who had the good
or a few years. Having set up shop in America, he
nd democracy, worried aloud about "the tyranny of
st of excellence, and predicted, just as Comte was
tivism for the second or third time, that, within a
would have a hundred million people and would,
the world's two leading powers.
d Foucault; we'll get to them in a minute.

OLE MODELS

r the historians of tomorrow.

1897): The master craftsman. And still seminal
Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy ignored eco­
ts, and kicked the Middle Ages while they were
with the understanding of the period we call "Re­
ing modern, learning to function as an individual,
cing statecraft and knowing that he's painting pic­
ft—that scholars have been going on ever since. A
o particular ax to grind, Burckhardt took the Italy
xteenth centuries and distilled and bottled it, Bor-
o, and all.

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BENEDETTO CROCE (1866-1952): T h e godfather
benevolent intellectual dictatorship over Italy for
he told Italians what to read and what not to r
and history. (Some of them still haven't gotten o
itive, and just this side of mystical, Croce wanted
incursions of science—and to give it a nudge in th
Or, as he put it in his History: Its Theory and Prac
history is told must vibrate in the soul of the hi
historian of aesthetic theories and of Italy, espe
Fascist before and throughout the War; with th
Jiminy Cricket) kind of common sense: Croce
harder to read.

PIETER GEYL (1887-1966): T h e voice of reason.
Europe, where tolerance and sturdy ankles are a w
of taking the long and balanced view, of assessing
tious neighbors are up to. O f course, Geyl can't
same breath with Michelet, Ranke, and Macaula
Groen van Prinsterer, but at least he quotes Aga
penetrating, the upholder of the standards of histo
someone once likened to a "douche of cold water,"
livered four lectures at the mention of Toynbee's n

FERNAND BRAUDEL (1902-1985): H a d the commo
Annales school of French historiography—which
the kings and the popes and the generals; let's see
up to," and which tried to bring to history some of
ences. In the end Braudel cared less about, say, t
about the fact that wolves were attacking Parisian
is popular only in countries where there are no v
people ate with their hands until the late eighteen
tally, is also when the idea of privacy was invented
of history, if you like minute observation against
you don't care if you ever hear another theory
Braudel—either his two-volume The Mediterran
World in the Age of Philip II or his three-volume
15th-18th Century—is for you.

A. j . p. TAYLOR (1906-1990): A smart Alistair Coo
cian of history," presumably because of his ability t
bound while lecturing on various complex hist
hundred years, and on the telly no less. Then

WORLD HISTORY 5§5

r. Exercised something like a
r half a century, during which
read in literature, philosophy,
over it.) Transcendental, intu­

to defend history against the
he direction of fellow-feeling.
ctice, "The deed o f which the
storian." Himself equally the
ecially Naples; a fervent anti-
he shrewdest, sweetest (think

is hard to resist. And even

In Holland, the crossroads of
way of life, men make a point
what their larger, more ambi­
refrain from invoking, in the
ay, a Dutch historian named
atha Christie, too. Measured,
orical scholarship, with a style
" Geyl rolled his eyes and de­
name.

on touch. Heir to the so called
said, "Enough, already, with
what the rest of us used to be
the methods of the social sci­

the Peace of Westphalia than
ns well into the 1400s; that tea
vineyards; and that even rich

th century, which, coinciden-
d. If anthropology is your idea
t a sweeping backdrop, and if

of history in your life, then
nean and the Mediterranean

Civilization and Capitalism,

oke. Dubbed "the pyrotechni-
to hold millions of Brits spell­
orical issues of the last few
there are his (at last count)

586 AN I N C O M P L E T E

twenty-six books, including E
his masterpiece; The Trouble M
Origins of the Second World W
Hitler as a traditional Germ
and laid a lot of blame at the
fices to make him the most w
dustry gossip: Even with the p
out on Oxford's Regius Pro
Roper, the other British histo
ford," who'd been one of the
can bet Taylor cackled to him
take, in 1983, of certifying a
and Newsweek had paid a forg

ISAIAH BERLI
Born in Latv
he's all for cho
flicts and perp
beyond the [p
a historian "o
thorough-goin
fearless crusad
ity" (he rolls h
above discuss
a champion of
favorite) who
Caution: Whi
a dull essay,"
freight trains
names of the
Newton to Nijinsky.

BARBARA TUCHMAN (1912-1
Tuchman see both doom and
egy during the opening days
primed-to-explode energies o
Tower, in the chaos of the dis
ror—she can't wait to rub ever
ryteller (she's been compared
with a knowledge of how to ex
rage and debate on behalf o
tions of morality can get on a

EDUCATION

English History: 1914-1945, sometimes said to be
Makers, about dissent and foreign policy; and The
War, a scandal in its day inasmuch as it portrayed
an statesman rather than a ravening warmonger,
doorsteps of Britain and France. All of which suf-
widely known British historian since Macaulay. In-
popularity and the productivity, Taylor in 1957 lost
fessorship of Modern History to Hugh Trevor-
orian of our times, nicknamed "the sleuth of Ox-
front-liners in the attack on Taylor's Origins. You
mself, though, when Trevor-Roper made the mis-
as genuine the sixty Hitler diaries for which Stern
ger several million dollars.

IN (1909- ): Mister—make that Sir—Sagacity.
via, raised in England, and canonized at Oxford,
oices (the harder the better) and "the painful con-

plexities of the disordered freedom of the world
prison] walls." Once just another philosopher, now
of ideas," of thinking about thinking, Berlin is a
ng liberal, a dyed-in-the-wool pluralist, and a
der against determinism and "historical inevitabil-
his eyes at the mention of Toynbee's name but is
ing him as an individual case). Naturally, he's also
f the intellectual underdog, the thinker (Vico is his

is out of synch with, because ahead of, his time.
le he's been positioned as "the don who can't write

be on your guard against sentences as long as
and the creepily casual dropping of the biggest
last couple of millennia, Plato to Pasternak and

1989): Twenty-twenty hindsight. Not only does
folly everywhere—in France's wrongheaded strat-
s of World War I in The Guns of August; in the

of fin-de-siècle Europe and America in The Proud
saster-ridden fourteenth century in A Distant Mir-
rybody's nose in it. Though she's a pretty good sto-

with Gibbon in terms of clarity and conviction)
xcite public—as opposed to merely academic—out-
of her field, Tuchman's character-is-fate exposi-
person's nerves. A bigger problem (but don't let on

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we're the ones who told you): She usually doesn't
hundred or so pages, the thesis she posited with suc
ter one.

RICHARD HOFSTADTER (1916-1970): G o o d bud
major American historian who didn't come from
town in the Midwest or a long line of Bostonians
the product of New York City, and he never stoppe
the cultural and political—and faintly radical—term
there. Interested in such contemporary phenomen
Deal, McCarthyism, paranoia, the plight of the Am
lectual, and Barry Goldwater; easygoing and pe
wore clip-on bow ties and hitched up his trousers
to admit that the picture he'd painted was subje
without official notice ("I offer trial models of his
pretation"): Hofstadter wrote to figure out wh
thought—and to share it with you, bro.

MICHEL FOUCAULT (1926~1984): Velvet fist in a
Tended to ask, but usually didn't stick around to
bravest, vaguest, and thorniest kinds of questions:
"discourses" that inform, say, our attitudes toward
our treatment of the insane? How do the "discou
What rules do they obey? How and why do they
cault, who has been claimed by both the structura
poststructuralists (see page 334) and who describe
"historian of systems of thought," kept two g
Parisian Marxists and American graduate student
to what the correct answers were, without himse
pinned down—like a particularly outrageous drag
insider's simile has it) foiling the arrest attempt
squad of policemen. While it seems clear that F
did a whole lot of library research into madne
prison, hospitals, or anything else, and while som
sights seem like plain showing off, you'll want to
to his notion of the episteme—from the Greek wor
edge," a sharp break between one historical period
marked by the end of one intellectual framework a
ning of a new one, as when the Age of Reason,
differences between what was normal and what w
to reclass the insane (who in the Middle Ages had

ORLD HISTORY

wind up proving, after seven
ch elegance way back in chap­

dy. T h e first
either a small
, Hofstadter's
ed thinking in
ms he learned
na as the New
merican intel­
ersonable (he
a lot); willing
ect to change
storical inter­
hat he really

an iron glove.
o answer, the
What are the
d sexuality or
urses" emerge?
change? Fou­
alists and the
d himself as a
enerations of
ts guessing as
elf ever being
queen (as one
s of a whole
Foucault never
ess, sexuality,
me of his in­
pay attention
d for "knowl­
d and another,
and the begin­
reviewing the
wasn't, decided
been thought

AN I N C O M P L E T E
of as divinely inspired), this ti
dentally) that the subtlest pro
ing, is the relationship betwe
Foucault used to state it, betw

F

JUSTINIAN AND THEODORA (m
tine Empire what it isn't tod
stock and worked his way u
keeper at the Hippodrome),
can do for a man. Justinian h
said "The emperor never slee
talent when he saw it. H e wa
tual lightweight. Theodora w
and nerve to keep Justinian in
consolidated the empire, dro
Justinian Code, and initiated
Byzantine glory. After she die
tinkering.

E EDUCATION
ime behind bars. Ditto to his belief (heartfelt, inci­
oblem in the world, and the one most worth study­
een liberty and social coercion, or, stated the way
ween truth and power.

Fun Couples

married A.D. 525): The team that made the Byzan­
day. A couple of climbers (he came from peasant
p to the throne; she was the daughter of a bear-
they're a classic example of what the right woman
ad energy (he was the one about whom it was first
eps"), personal appeal, and a knack for recognizing
s, however, an unstable egomaniac and an intellec­
was a troublemaker, but she had the requisite brains
n the imperial driver's seat. While she was alive, he
ove out pesky barbarians, established the famous
d most of the architectural feats associated with
ed (of cancer, in 548), he spent the rest of his reign

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HELOiSE AND ABELARD (married c. 1118): What
jerker! Peter Abelard was the most celebrated l
theologian, and teacher of his day, and the bigges
medieval France. Taking a shine to young Heloise, t
liant seventeen-year-old niece of a canon at the un
he finagled a job as her tutor and promptly seduc
After she gave birth to a son named Astrolabe (don't
us, we weren't consulted), the couple were married,
cretiy, to avoid damaging Abelard's career. Heloi
home to live with her uncle, who became incr
freaked out over the whole affair. H e took to s
Heloise around on general principle, and finally
couple of thugs to sneak into Abelard's room at ni
castrate him. This hurt Abelard's pride. H e crept of
come a famous teacher somewhere else, write contr
scholarly treatises, and establish an order of literary n
which Heloise eventually became the abbess. Poor H
who was forced to take the veil, never got to spen
than five minutes with her husband after that fatefu
in Paris, but she and Abelard did publish the love
that substituted for sex for the rest of their lives; c
later, these inspired the epistolary novel, if that's any
lation.

HENRY 11 AND ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE (married
Not only did they form the most potent concentra
forces in feudal Europe, but their relationship co
enough sex, power, and ambition to fuel a Broadw
and a Hollywood movie. Eleanor was thirty, Henr
teen when they met. She saw in him a lusty young
turer, the future King of England. H e saw in
chance for a brilliant political alliance (England
prize in those days and she did happen to own—
ally—more than half of France). Two towering eg
spent the next twenty years intimidating the neighb
trying to dominate each other. H e turned England
respectable kingdom; she ran Aquitaine. He fou
Church; she patronized the arts. He ran around wit
women; she sponsored young troubadors. Final
talked her sons into making war on their father;
and had her thrown in jail for fifteen years. She had
laugh, though; she outlived him.

ORLD HISTORY 589

a tear-
logician,
st ego in
the bril­
niversity,
ced her.
t look at
, but se-
se went
easingly
slapping

hired a
ight and
ff to be­
roversial
nuns, of
Heloise,
nd more
ul night
e letters
centuries
y conso­

d 1152):
ation of
ontained
way play
ry nine­
g adven­
her the
was no
—person­
os, they
bors and
d into a
ught the
th other
lly, she
he won

the last

52° AN I N C O M P L E T E

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argument for or against mar

point of view.

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bo
ne
ce
of
le
ta
ex
po
fa
bl
vi
Th
m
th
crown, England became secur
a fig for the crown, for Eng
dream: eliminating all things

E EDUCATION

ERDINAND AND ISABELLA (married 1469): It was a

atholic ceremony. The bride, Isabella of Castile,
as the product of a Gothic-novel childhood—
loomy casde, demented mother, sexually depraved
alf-brother and all—but she didn't let that stand in
er way when the throne of Castile was up for grabs.
he groom, Ferdinand of Aragon, was dashing, dy­
amic, and due to inherit the province next door,
lus Sicily, Sardinia, Naples, and the Balearic Is­
ands. They were a perfect match, a couple of high-
akes players sitting on a lot of undeveloped real
state. To tame the local nobles and instill a sense of
amily loyalty, the couple decided to start the Span­
h Inquisition. This, combined with the expulsion
f the Jews and Moors, the conquest of Grenada,
bella's investment in Christopher Columbus (with
ly not having an affair), did the trick. Spain became
country in the world and the most ironclad monar­
and Isabella, "the Catholic kings," became the best
rrying within your own faith, depending on your

WILLIAM AND MARY (married 1677): Now here's a
oring couple. Paragons of Protestant restraint, they
evertheless managed to undermine the whole con­
ept of absolute monarchy. William (that's William
f Orange) was a stolid, sensible Dutchman; father­
ess, childless, humorless, and utterly devoid of
able manners, he seemed incapable of any passion
xcept a rabid hatred of the French. He was im­
orted by the English Parliament to unseat Mary's
ather, the Catholic James II, which he did in a
loodless victory of political maneuvering over di­
ine right known as the Glorious Revolution.
hanks in part to the obedient Mary, who was

merely William's safe-conduct to the English
hrone, Parliament gained supremacy over the
rely Protestant again, and William, who didn't care
gland, or for Mary, got to pursue his impossible

French from the face of the earth.

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NAPOLÉON AND JOSÉPHINE (married 1 7 9 6 ) : A n u
likely match, but it seemed to work. H e was a sh
Corsican soldier six years her junior with minimal co
nections, few social graces, and no money in the ba
She was a seductive Creole from Martinique with tw
children, expensive tastes, and one of the most fa
ionable salons in Paris. His family loathed her. S
wasn't impressed with him, either, but her politica
prominent lover encouraged the match. Two days af
the wedding he marched off to conquer Italy. S
stayed home, shopped, and had affairs with youn
men. H e put up with her infidelities and her lazin
and found comfort in the vast empty spaces of h
mind. She put up with his rages and his round-th
clock workdays and worshipped him from across t
room. For thirteen years they lived happily in the f
lane. He conquered most of Europe, rearranged t
rest, and had himself crowned emperor. She took
wearing Empire-waist dresses and bought more ha
He never did manage to get her pregnant, though, a
in the end he annulled the marriage to hitch up w
an eighteen-year-old Austrian princess who bore h
an heir. Too bad; it broke Josephine's heart and, a
turned out, he needn't have bothered.

FRANKLIN AND ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (married 1 9 0
The closest we ever had to a king and a queen. Or
a pair of kings, but let's leave Eleanor's sexual pref
ences out of this, shall we? F D R did have a dictator
streak, what with the New Deal, the way he tried
butt into the Supreme Court's business, and his g
ting us into the war. But don't forget that dem
goguery was in flower in those days and it could
been worse: We could've had Huey Long. Besid
Franklin gave us Eleanor, who was a great lady in sp
of those sensible shoes. Not content with planti
memorial shrubs, she was even more of a reform
than he was; in fact, some people called her a Com
mistake, given her holier-than-thou attitudes and th
thing intrinsically wrong with "Negroes." This w
marriage, really, and sometimes it seemed more like
that, after all, the American Way?

WORLD HISTORY

un­
hort
on­
ank.
wo
ash­
She
ally
fter
She
nger
ness
her
he-
the
fast
the

to
ats.
and
with
him
as it

05):
r to
fer­
rial
d to
get­
ma-
d've
des,
pite
ing
mer
mmunist—an understandable
he fact that she didn't see any­
as more a partnership than a
e a rivalry than either. But isn't

592 AN I N C O M P L E T E

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Chi
she

E EDUCATION

O ZEDONG AND JIANG Q i N G (married c. 1938, if

er). They showed the West that Chinese Commu­
ts can have marital problems, too. He was already
his third wife when he met her; she was an ambi­
us Shanghai actress who'd been through one hus­
nd and several, well, mentors. For nearly thirty
ars she had to be content with typing his lecture
tes and occasionally outraging his comrades by dar­
g to appear in public as Madame Mao. Then, in
66, she suddenly emerged as first deputy leader and
ef witch-hunter of the Great Proletarian Cultural
volution. For the next ten years she publicly purged
urgeois reactionism from the arts while privately
eening Greta Garbo movies for her friends. Mao,
o lived (and, more particularly, slept) elsewhere,
pt in touch by sending her cryptic notes and right-
nking poems. Almost immediately after his death
1976, she was arrested as one of the "Gang of
ur," charged, in a show trial, with plotting to be­
me "the new empress," and expelled from the Party
a "bourgeois careerist, conspirator, counterrevolu­
nary, double-dealer, and renegade." Her famous
ort: "I was Chairman Mao's dog. When he said
te,' I bit." She spent the next fourteen years in a
inese jail, where, according to the official version,
e hanged herself from her bedframe in 1991.

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Vintage Yea

FOR THOSE WHO'VE ALREA
1066, 1588, AND

1453

The Hundred Years' War (actually the Hundred
Sixteen Years' War, but who's counting?), betw
England and France, is over. So are: chivalry
armor couldn't stand up to the new English longb
plus most of the knights had come to seem m
greedy than valiant); Joan of Arc (burned at the st
but she really had singlehandedly saved France);
the illusion that England, the loser, sort of, and Fra
the winner, sort of (even though the former, an un
populated little island, had, in the course of the
managed to win possession of most of the latter,
biggest, fattest country in Europe, only to be route
the end) were destined to be a single nation. By w
end, too, kings are firmly back in the saddle after
centuries of cagey maneuvering on the part of the
bility and its parliaments (and of their own royal i
titude). And the Middle Ages are teetering on
brink of Modern Times.

1598

Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, pro
Huguenots, the same civil and religious rights that
England, where the Catholic minority had no righ
religion was all about grabbing a free city or a pr
own creed on it, France was suddenly, and out of the
up. For this, there is Henry to thank, a former H
savvy one), who, having been crowned king, realiz
inside the gates of heavily Catholic Paris, he was
concessions—the occasion for his religious convers

ORLD HISTORY 593

ars

ADY SAVORED
1789

and
ween

(the
bow,
more
take,

and
ance,
nder­

war,
, the
ed at
war's

two
no­
nep­
the

Joan of Arc at Prayer by Rubens

omising French Protestants, or
French Catholics had. Unlike

hts at all, and Germany, where
rincipality and imposing your
e blue, behaving like a grown­
Huguenot (and a particularly
zed that if he wanted to be let

going to have to make a few
sion and for his famous obser-

vation, "Paris is well worth a
Navarre): He's the most popu
kings (except maybe for St. L
politician ever to make use of
founder of the Bourbon dynas
Louis (see page 598) who fol
in 1610; the Huguenots woul
the Edict of Nantes and Fran
ligious tolerance.

1648

The Peace of Westphalia end
yet. Wave good-bye to the me
of religion, the Holy Roman E
dred years, and Spain's prospe
lar thinking, the ascendancy o
age of pluralism, in which no
unity, spiritual, political, or o
crete, self-interested entities t

1762

Jean-Jacques Rousseau publi
common man, the "noble sav

a Mass." Make a note of Henry IV (born Henry of
ular and most fondly remembered of all the French
Louis, back in the Middle Ages), he was the first

the slogan "a chicken in every pot," and he was the
sty, laying the foundations for the absolutism of the
llowed him. Unfortunately, Henry was assassinated
d get theirs, too, in 1685, when Louis X I V revoked
nce started to pretend it had never even heard of re­

ds the Thirty Years' War, the most destructive war
edieval worldview, the Counter-Reformation, wars
Empire, Germany's prospects for the next two hun­
ects, period. Brace yourself for the triumph of secu­
of France (in the person of Louis X I V ) , and a new
obody will even pretend Europe has any overriding
other, and in which states will behave like the dis­
they are.

ishes his Social Contract. His glorification of the
age," had already managed to make breast-feeding

fashionable again (and would later encourage Mar
milkmaid). Now Rousseau, feeling alienated as ev
and paranoid, among other things, and nobody w
him—describes a society in which he thinks men
happy: Individuals would surrender their natural l
their individual wills into a General Will, which,
parliament, would be the true sovereign power
Rousseau becomes the prophet of both democracy
years, the ideas he set forth in it will help to bring
The book is not, however, a bestseller.

1815

The Congress of Vienna puts its stamp on Euro
England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria—having fin
Napoleon's plan for a France that stretched from
down and work out a "balance of power" that will
First World War. Not that the diplomats who gath
shifty Prince Metternich, the crafty Baron Talleyr
forward-looking; in fact, most of them, intent on
nationalism and democracy that had sprouted in
Revolution, were downright reactionary. But neith
The Treaty of Vienna wisely let France off fairly
leyrand, who knew an opening when he saw one

ie Antoinette to dress up as a
er—he was Swiss, Protestant,
wanted to play milkmaid with
n, himself included, could be
liberty to one another, fusing
rather than a king or even a
r. With his Social Contract,
and nationalism; in just a few
about the French Revolution.

pe. The four great powers—
nally managed to write finis to

Madrid to Moscow, now sit
pretty much prevail until the
hered in Austria's capital—the
and, and so on—were all that
squashing the liberalism and
the aftermath of the French
her were the diplomats dopes:
y easy (applause here for Tal­
), deeded over to Britain the

barricades, 1848

best and the brightest colonia
sia and Austria for domination
issue (for at least the next cou
And, for a hundred years afte
French Revolution and Napol
of 1830 and 1848 (see below)
Prussian War of 1870—peace

1848

Barricades and cobblestones
rope—Paris to Budapest, Co
lenged, and sometimes overt
few months later. (Britain an
sues: nationalism, constitutio
tion of serfdom in the Balka
Church, the farflung Hapsbu
are freed, all right, but drea
dust. The legacy: class hatred
(which the Germans, whose
ting of the stage for Marxism
that January.

al empire, smoothed over the rivalry between Prus­
n of the German-speaking world, and resolved the
uple of generations) of who'd push Poland around.
er the incredible (and exhausting) brouhaha of the
leon, there was—if you leave aside the insurrections
and a few eensy localized conflicts like the Franco-
e.

s, radicalism and the June Days. All over Eu­
penhagen to Palermo—the existing order is chal­
turned, only to be back still pretty much on top a
nd Russia alone missed out on the chaos.) The is­
onal government, broadened suffrage, the aboli­
ans. The enemy: the ruling classes, the Catholic
urg influence. The result: a basic misfiring—serfs
ams of liberalism and good government bite the
d and national jealousy, a new toughness of mind
day is at hand, will call Realpolitik), and the set­
m . In fact, The Communist Manifesto had appeared

W

1854

Commodore Perry, an American, opens Japan. H e
ilized nation, much given to city life, novels, the t
landscape, lacquer work, and fans. None of which s
open fire if the Japanese don't accede to his demand
on terms hugely advantageous to the latter. Ditto, to
a gunboat and a cocked hat. Japan, sealed off tight l
of the world since 1640, when it had kicked out all o
ropeans except for a handful of Dutch merchants i
self undergoing Westernization in everything from
the delivery of its mail. The Japanese wind up ge
they'd really been needing all along—science, techn
get it real fast. In fact, never have so many people un
formation in so few years. Or, a short century late
their teachers.

1945

Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin take another mee
czarist summer resort on the Black Sea. Victory o
sight: But how are the Allied powers to deal with
other? Roosevelt miscalculates, choosing to trust
Churchill—a past master at the old spheres-of-in
style of diplomacy—too little. Russia not only gets
that it doesn't have one big furry boot on it already
hasn't even been at war with), it gets the West's sea
the name of, talk about irony, international friends

ORLD HISTORY

finds there an elaborately civ­
theater, the contemplation of
stops him from threatening to
ds to trade with America, and
o trade with everybody else in
ittle-island-style from the rest
of an earlier generation of Eu­
in Nagasaki, will soon find it­
the codification of its laws to
etting what they soon realize
nology, bureaucracy. And they
ndergone so profound a trans­
er, so succeeded in upstaging

ting, this one at Yalta, an old
over Germany and Japan is in

the defeated? Likewise, each
t Stalin too much, listen to
nfluence, keep-your-distance
most of Eastern Europe (not
y) plus parts of Japan (who it
al of approval, too. And all in
hip.

528 AN I N C O M P L E T E

Lo

It's hard enough trying to ke
is one to do with the crazy
naming their eldest sons Loui
to remember, and a few things

THE M

Timid, sickly, and depressed,
first toward his mother, the fa
toward his minister, Richelieu
merable enemies, on the oth
very much to be a great king.
noting that he had the sense to
second fiddle to a minister he
of France.

E EDUCATION

ouis, Louis

eep track of the English Henrys and Richards; what
y French monarchs who, for centuries, insisted on
is? Our advice: Start small. Here, the four Louises
s to remember them by.

MAN: LOUIS XIII
(1601-1643)

, he spent most of his life trying to assert himself;
at, silly, overbearing regent Marie de' Medici; then
u, on the one hand, and toward Richelieu's innu­
her. Despite his personal problems, Louis wanted
History has only recently begun to do him justice,
o recognize his own limitations and the guts to play
hated for what seemed, at the time, to be the good

W

HIS MATE

Anne of Austria: T h e daughter of the King of S
Hapsburg rule), she was selected by Louis' mother,
liance between the two countries. Louis responde
four years for him to consummate the marriage, an
child. Anne had a strange life, but not the worst im
although she was perpetually at loggerheads with
rogant and vehemently anti-Hapsburg, her husban
to be actively unfaithful to her. She became regent
ter were dead.

HIS MINISTE

Cardinal Richelieu: T h e proud, ruthless power behin
best remember as the villain in Dumas's The Th
schoolchild would be able to recite Richelieu's fam
consolidating the power of the monarchy and the
Protestants, curb the nobles, and humble the Hous
the Cardinal was known, succeeded, up to a point—
conspiracies and, importantly, he had the support o
the king—but he nearly bankrupted the stat
through sheer financial ineptitude.

HIS MOTTO

"Now I am king."

HIS CHAIR:

ORLD HISTORY

Spain (Spain was then under
, who hoped to cement an al­
ed by ignoring Anne; it took
nd twenty to father their first
maginable for a French queen;
Richelieu, who was both ar­
nd, at least, lacked the energy
once the king and his minis­

ER

nd the throne, whom you may
hree Musketeers. Any French
mous three-point program for
e French state: Suppress the
se of Austria. "Red Robe," as
—he had a knack for crushing
of
te

6oo AN I N C O M P L E T E

T

This little m
Corneille, R
greatest repo
with absolu
you'll always
(that hooked
Bourbon dy
ligent, he su
King" largel
ever, have ce
ability to rec
state, and an
king. Under
him the long
came the mo
though it wa

Marie Thérèse of Spain: Louis'
married to fulfill a treaty agre
several children who died in i
Dauphin, who died before he

The Duchesse de la Vallière: Sh
broken, to a nunnery when h

Mme. de Montespan: A n intri
lière, managed to hang on for
children. She fell into disgrac
involving the mysterious death
had recently chosen to replace

Mme. de Maintenon: A pious
literary salon. Louis gave her
tespan. These two were friend
admired Mme. de Maintenon
queen, they were married se

E EDUCATION

THE MAN: LOUIS XIV
(1638-1715)

man, believe it or not, ruled the France that produced
Racine, Molière, and Pascal, and was himself the
ository of personal power in an age that was crawling
utist, divine-right monarchs. Short (which is why
s see him in heels and a mile-high wig), not pretty
d nose and receding chin were the trademarks of the
nasty), harsh, egotistical, and only moderately intel-
ucceeded in getting himself nicknamed "The Sun
y because France was ripe for a leader. H e did, how-
ertain qualifications for the job: common sense, an
cognize talent, stand-out style, a strong feeling for the
n absolute delight in the day-to-day business of being
r his rule (which lasted seventy-two years, making
gest-running monarch in French history) France be-
ost powerful and prestigious country in Europe, al-
as financially ruined in the process.

HIS MATES

' small, swarthy, somewhat insipid queen, whom he
eement. She played litde part in his life, produced
infancy and one rather mediocre prince, the Grand
e could become king.

he loved him, bore him children, and retired, heart-
he abandoned her.

iguer who, after replacing the Duchesse de la Val-
twelve years, and to bear the king eight illegitimate
ce during the Affair of the Poisons, a court scandal
hs of various nobles, among them the woman Louis
e her.

widow in her forties, renowned for her successful
the task of raising his children by Mme. de Mon-
ds before they were lovers; Louis, an aging libertine,
ns intelligence and austerity. After the death of the
ecretly. She played an important role in politics,

W

caused a major change in the king's lifestyle, and
his reign—making them, some thought, slightly d

HIS MINISTER

Cardinal Mazarin: A n Italian, inherited from Loui
whom, it was rumored, he was secretly married. Ma
much the same as Richelieu's, although his style lea
unscrupulousness than open ruthlessness. His ongo
in the crown led to the open rebellion known as L a
bourgeoisie nearly succeeded in toppling the monar
each other instead. Mazarin ran the country while
the young Louis dispensed with the office of chief
the reins himself.

Colbert: Louis' finance minister for twenty years, h
tioners of mercantilism, the system of building n
goods in exchange for gold and other precious me
economically self-sufficient, he encouraged industry
tion of a navy, and patronized the arts, but in the en
his reputation—collapsed under the weight of Lou

HIS MOTTO

"L'état c'est moi. " ("I am the state.")

HIS CHAIR:

ORLD HISTORY 601

transformed the later years of
epressing.

RS

s' mother, Anne of Austria, to
azarin's aims and policies were
aned more toward subtlety and
oing attempts to center power
a Fronde, in which nobles and
rchy, but ended by turning on
e he lived, but after his death,
f minister altogether and held

he was one of the great practi­
national wealth by exporting
etals. Hoping to make France
y, built roads, began construc­
nd most of his programs—and
uis' personal extravagance.

6o2 AN I N C O M P L E T E

THE

Handsome and frail, he was
adoring subjects early in his
Louis wasn't stupid, but he wa
to flirt rather than rule. His m
and intrigue at court and sett
cret du Roi," abroad. By the e
influence in Europe were just
most hated man in France.

Maria Leszcynska: T h e daugh
older than Louis, she was the
ried when he was fifteen, and
sweet, and able to produce ten
fused to sleep with the king fo
sign herself to being a good
wind.

Mme. de Pompadour: Her bo
than loose morals ever could.

E EDUCATION

MAN: LOUIS XV
(1710-1774)

dubbed "le Bien-Aimé" (the Well-Beloved) by his
reign; before long, the epithet was purely ironical.
as spoiled rotten; an incorrigible débauché, he chose
method of governing consisted of fomenting gossip
ting up an elaborate spy network, known as "le S e ­
end of his reign, royal authority at home and French
t pleasant memories and Louis was, personally, the

HIS MATES

hter of a dethroned Polish king, and considerably
best that could be found in a hurry. They were mar­
d for a while they got along fine; she was modest,
n children in ten years. Eventually, however, she re­
or the sake of her health, after which she had to re­
sport while Louis threw sexual discretion to the

ourgeois background scandalized the court more
. Louis made her a marquise, and she did whatever

W

was necessary to hang on to power for the next
small feat since, according to the history books,
and Mme. de Pompadour was "frigid"; she solve
beautiful mistresses for him. A n inveterate schemer
up trouble at court, and she helped Louis shape his
the plus side, she had taste and wit and was comm
She provided Voltaire with support and protection
la Concorde.

Mme. du Barry: She played Lolita to Louis' Humbe
favorite, la du Barry was a pretty, vivacious, rather
many people's nerves, but apparently meant no har
tocrat. She reportedly sat on the arm of the royal c
making faces at the minsters like a pet monkey.

HIS MINISTE

Cardinal Fleury: Already seventy when he took off
economically, and cautiously. But he couldn't live
fice, at the age of ninety, Louis decided not to ap
place.

HIS MOTTO

"Après moi, le déluge. " (Louis never really said
this; it was a measure of his unpopularity that
everyone believed he had.)

HIS CHAIR:

ORLD HISTORY

nineteen years. This was no
Louis was sexually insatiable
ed the problem by procuring
r, she had a genius for stirring
s disastrous foreign policy. On
mitted to encouraging artists.
n and Paris with the Place de

ert Humbert. His last official
vulgar courtesan who got on
rm. She was, at least, an aris-
chair during council meetings,

ER

fice, he ran the state honestly,
forever; when he died in of-
point another minister in his

AN I N C O M P L E T E

THE

Flabby, sluggish, humble, an
it wasn't being king. He read
at all, and always looked a m
Even if his piety and basic
Louis lacked the will to put
about were food, his wife, a
without hunting was a day n
diary, "Nothing."

Marie Antoinette: She'd been t
Louis wasn't: majestic, charmi
her; she despised him. The fac
summating their marriage for
night or to make her treat him

E EDUCATION

MAN: LOUIS XVI
(1754-1793)

nd shy, he was probably cut out for something, but
d slowly, danced poorly, made conversation barely
mess, no matter how much trouble his valets took.
good-heartedness had been leadership qualities,
t them to work. The only things he really cared
and the hunt, in ascending order. To him, a day
not really lived. On July 14, 1789, he wrote in his

HIS MATE

the Archduchess of Austria and she was everything
ing, sophisticated, proud, and frivolous. He adored
ct that a genital malformation kept Louis from con­
r eight years didn't do much to keep her home at
m kindly. Still, rumors that she was unfaithful were

W

probably false; she was more interested in shopping
travagance earned her the nickname "Madame
background that the French found really unforgiva
after her death revealed that the queen's mother, M
intention of using her daughter as a tool of the A
meddling in politics certainly shooed the Revolu
French had no way of knowing that at the time.

HIS MINISTE

Maurepas: A n old courtier intent on offending no
squelch lethal court factions and refused to suppo
posed by the liberal minister Turgot because he wa
the Revolution was only eight years away.

Necker: A conservative financier who came into p
his ambitious wife, who presided over a brilliant l
Marie Antoinette, and by the time he'd regained
policies were too little, too late.

HIS MOTTO

ORLD HISTORY 605

g than in sex. Although her ex­
Déficit," it was her Austrian
able. In fact, letters discovered
Maria Theresa, had had every
Austrian government (and her
ution along its way), but the

RS

one, he missed his chance to
ort the financial reforms pro­
as jealous. By the time he died,

prominence largely because of
literary salon. He ran afoul of
power, his orthodox financial

6o6 AN I N C O M P L E T E

Special Souve

YOU CAN'T TELL
CASES, THE I

Persian Wars, Pe

In the Persian Wars ( 5 0 0 - 4 9
Sparta—defeated the greatest
pire that embraced not only P
much of what is today Afgha
coast, as a colonial revolt again
the colonists' side, and won
volved and, with the Athenia
brave) defeat at Thermopylae
naval victory at Salamis. Eve
Xerxes I who suffered the def
then pushed the Persians inla
century later) and opened the
page 572) tells the story of th
Greek nationalism and sense o
dancy of Athens.

In the Peloponnesian War (
preeminent Greek city-state, a
spiteful, jealous Sparta and he
the Péloponnèse, the southern
Athens, which was all about d
initially tried to wear down t
garchy and military disciplin
enough to see their rivals figh
Ultimately, the war ruined A
wasn't helped by a plague, in
several allies). Sparta, triumph
away with voting and playwri
long, Sparta remained the dom
years. Thucydides, who wrote
War the worst disturbance
Romans.

E EDUCATION

enir-Program Section

THE PLAYERS—OR, IN SOME
INNINGS—WITHOUT ONE

eloponnesian War, Punic Wars

99 B.C.), the Greeks—most notably Athens and
t empire the world had up to then known, an em-
Persia, but Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and
anistan. The wars began in Ionia, on the Turkish
nst the "barbarian" landlord; Athens stepped in on
a big victory at Marathon. The Spartans got in-
ans, suffered a famous (though they'd been very
e; but the same year (480) the Greeks had a big
entually they destroyed the Persian fleet—it was
feat, his father (Darius I) having started the war—
nd (where Alexander the Great would zap them a
entire Aegean to Greek shipping. Herodotus (see
e Persian Wars, which mark the coming of age of
of superiority to the "Orient," as well as the ascen-

(431-404 B.C.), greedy, cocksure Athens, now the
and its allies, the so called Delian League, took on
er allies, the so called Peloponnesian League (from
nmost Greek peninsula, which Sparta dominated).
democracy and high culture and maritime trading,
the resistance of Sparta, which was all about oli-
ne and living off the land. (The Persians, happy
hting, funded both sides, first one, then the other.)
Athens, which made a lot of miscalculations (and
which Pericles, its leader, died, or by the revolt of
hant, took over the Athenian empire, where it did
iting; though it wasn't able to control Athens for
minant power in ancient Greece for another thirty
e about it (see page 572), calls the Peloponnesian
in Greek history, but then he hadn't met the