In 1928 a ‘friendship testimonial’ in the form of an obelisk was erected in the Japanese town of Onjuku in Chiba (see Figure P.1). The obelisk stands at the presumed site where the Spanish colonial official Don Rodrigo de Vivero (1564–1636) stepped ashore after being rescued from a shipwrecked journey from the Philippines to Mexico in 1609. This Prefectural Historic Monument, known as the Mexico Commemorative Tower, manifests historical ties with Chiba’s sister city Acapulco across the Pacific. A year after the construction of the obelisk, historian Murakami Naojirō (村上直次郎, 1868–1966) published a Japanese translation of Vivero’s memories of Japan.

This chapter examines the drastic deterioration of US–Soviet relations from 1945 to Stalin’s death in 1953. It argues that the “cold war” was neither inevitable nor an objective reality. Instead, the shift from negotiation to confrontation was spurred by misconceptions, and the intense mutual enmity stemmed from subjective constructions as much as divergent fundamental interests. US leaders’ expectations that America’s unrivalled economic strength and monopoly on nuclear weapons would lead the USSR to go along with US plans for the postwar world collided with Soviet leaders’ determination not to be intimidated or to relinquish their domination of Eastern Europe. Journalists and propagandists on both sides worked to reshape public images of their former allies, stoking fears and inflaming ideological differences that had been set aside earlier. Key US officials, particularly George F. Kennan, exaggerated the US ability to shake the Communist system’s hold on the peoples of the USSR. through propaganda and covert action. Meanwhile, Soviet propagandists misleadingly depicted American media demonization of their country as part of US preparation for war against the USSR.

This chapter surveys the evolution of urbanisation in Western Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The discussion follows the urban geography of the region, how and why it changed, and the relationship to industrialisation, capitalist production, market and transport networks. It considers the ways in which cities and towns along the Channel coast and North Sea, the coast of the Atlantic, and along the Mediterranean both substantiate and exhaust the vision of ‘Western Europe’ and evidence the richness of European patterns of urban life. Emphasis is on the density of the urban network as well as the multiplicity and distinctiveness of urban society in Western Europe as it evolved over time. Attention is given to the bourgeois and working-class experience, the rise of urban reform and planning, and the dissemination of Western European urban patterns as a model of modernity. The chapter recounts the fate of cities in the first and second world wars. It gives full attention to the late twentieth century and how Western European urban life changed under the influence of modernisation schemes, post-industrial society and globalisation.

This chapter presents Murakami Naojirō’s multifaceted life in chronological order. Providing details about Murakami’s educational background, career stages, and publication history, this chapter traces his imperial agendas and epistemological impact in East and Southeast Asia. It emphasizes the entangled nature of his life and work as a translator historian and scholar diplomat who held influential academic positions during the Japanese Empire, as well as his rehabilitation in Jesuit-led Christian history circles toward the end of his life. A variety of genres have been consulted to develop a comprehensive understanding of Murakami’s professional life across archives, universities, and government offices and how his various posts shaped the global circulation of knowledge.

Italian cities were at the forefront of cultural change during the period 1400-1700, with innovations in architecture and urban design being adopted widely across the rest of the continent. During the early modern period, many Italian cities took on key elements of the built appearance that they retain to this day. Monumental form and the application of increasingly ordered urban planning regulations were achieved thanks also to well-organised administrations that levied taxes that could in part subsidise urban improvements. The wealth of urban elites likewise contributed to this process through widespread participation in the construction of residential palaces and new religious buildings. Cities, and the concentrations of people and wealth that assembled there, were at the very heart of the cultural renewal that is associated with the period; literary, artistic and intellectual culture was defined by its urban nature, whether this was within a courtly or civic setting.

On 23 August 1939, Hitler and Stalin agreed to a treaty of non-aggression, paving the way for the outbreak of war in Europe. Though this Nazi-Soviet Pact stunned contemporary observers, this chapter argues that the decision for partnership – and the military, economic, and intelligence cooperation it portended – had a long prehistory. Here, the Soviet-German relationship is traced from its inception in 1917 through Germany’s invasion of the USSR in 1941. It focuses on four distinct periods: early contacts during and immediately following the First World War, the Rapallo era of extensive cooperation between 1921 to 1933, the collapse of the Soviet-German relationship after 1933, and the resumption of partnership in 1939 with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This chapter concludes that the two periods of Soviet-German cooperation were ultimately decisive factors in the breakdown of the post-war European status quo.

Volume II charts European urbanism between 700 and 1850, the millennium during which Europe became the world’s most urbanised region. Featuring thirty-six chapters from leading scholars working on all the major linguistic areas of Europe, the volume offers a state-of-the-art survey that explores and explains this transformation, how similar or different such processes were across Europe, and how far it is possible to discern traits that characterise European urbanism in this period. The first half of the volume offers overviews on the urban history of Mediterranean Europe, Atlantic and North Sea Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, and European urbanisms around the world. The second half explores major themes, from the conceptualisation of cities and their material fabric to continuities and changes in the social, political, economic, religious and cultural histories of cities and towns.

Volume II charts European urbanism between 700 and 1850, the millennium during which Europe became the world’s most urbanised region. Featuring thirty-six chapters from leading scholars working on all the major linguistic areas of Europe, the volume offers a state-of-the-art survey that explores and explains this transformation, how similar or different such processes were across Europe, and how far it is possible to discern traits that characterise European urbanism in this period. The first half of the volume offers overviews on the urban history of Mediterranean Europe, Atlantic and North Sea Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, and European urbanisms around the world. The second half explores major themes, from the conceptualisation of cities and their material fabric to continuities and changes in the social, political, economic, religious and cultural histories of cities and towns.

In 1995, Thabo Mbeki’s keynote address at a G7 meeting, lauded by Tim Berners-Lee, underscored the Web’s potential to revolutionize global social and political landscapes, particularly emphasizing its significance for Africa. This chapter looks at the impact of digital technology on African literature. Using Chimamanda Adichie, Binyavanga Wainaina, and Brittle Paper as anchor points, it examines how digital technology and culture are reconstituting literary audiences, making space for the emergence of new knowledge domains and transforming the production infrastructures. It concludes that digital culture is the epistemic context in which twenty-first-century African literature exhibits some of its most defining characteristics.