It (urban peacekeeping) was quite a task, requiring a permanent balancing act between communities, each with their own interests, festivals, traditions and historical rivalries imported from the wide-open spaces of the countryside into close quarters.

A temporary coalition of anger against the old regime was no basis for a stable government.

His Majesty has done absolutely nothing but waste his time darling around eating sweets, contributing to the boy’s adolescent chubiness, and to the sense of the country’s political drift. Rather than being encouraged to govern,...

As anywhere else, political instability provided an opportunity for local scores to be settled, for personal grievances to be aired, for heroes to be acclaimed and discarded, giving full reign to the fickle fortunes of...

Newspapers provided a common culture of aspiration.

Constantinople had been changing for sometime before the Young Turks got hold of it. It would continue to change long after they had gone.

New York presented a paradox. While foreigners thought of New York has the symbol of America, many Americans viewed the city with some suspicion as the country’s most foreign.

The Shah “had traveled to Europe and had been fascinated by the march of progress he observed there. But, once back in Terhan, this fascination had not been translated into sustained Persian modernization, but rather...

The overall result was drift punctuated by protest.

The long-term integrity of the empire would not be assured by warm words alone. Britain”s own position in the empire had changed. Once, the country been the engine room of empire, the productive heart of...

Apparently, a week Japan was laughable; but a strong Japan was immediately transformed into the prime example of a “Yellow Peril”. Might Japan forever be stuck in a kind of no man’s land between East...

Nationalist (forces around the world) could now more readily communicate and share their grievances, viewing themselves as similar groups, engaged in a common struggle for greater autonomy against control exerted from London or Paris.

The city (of Vienna) had an unerring tradition of celebrating some of it’s greatest composers after it had around them to die in poverty.