Customer Reviews

Cultural Internationalism and World Order (Albert Shaw Memorial Lectures)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Iriye has bravely gone beyond the realist notion of international relations to explore what all of us (or almost all?) instinctively find lacking in that notion: the ubiquitous cultural atmosphere in which all states and peoples interact. Precisely because it is an atmosphere, it is difficult to grasp, let alone explain cogently. Iriye does both, especially in the first two chapters charting the rise of intellectual movements across borders. That rise is also admirably quantified (e.g. the proliferation of international organizations), but ironically, the reader is left wondering just how vital conferences, declarations, and so forth have been and will be for cultural internationalism. Are these the catalysts or the results of globalism? And what are their respective weights in history? As revealing as, say, UNESCO's founding was after WWII, it is surely not the whole story.

That said, Iriye does not claim that this book is the final word on the subject, only the beginning of a new approach to modern history. His beginning is rewarding, and the approach overdue.