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21st-Century
Narratives of
World History
Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives
Edited by R. Charles Weller
21st-Century Narratives of World History
 R. Charles Weller
Editor

21st-Century
Narratives of World
History
Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives
Editor
R. Charles Weller
Department of History
Washington State University
Pullman, WA, USA

and

Center for Muslim-Christian

Understanding
Georgetown University
Washington, DC, USA

ISBN 978-3-319-62077-0 ISBN 978-3-319-62078-7 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-62078-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017945807

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
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 In hopes of fostering greater understanding of our shared world,
for its ultimate betterment both humanly and environmentally,…
.…and in loving memory of:
Robert Edward Taylor
Feb 12, 1938—Mar 4, 1990
American and world historian,
Loving and devoted husband to his wife,
and father to his children
 Foreword

Organizing an approach to world history presents some interesting

challenges, for scholars, teachers, and students alike. The subject is vast, and
some principles are essential in figuring out what to emphasize, and what
can safely—if sometimes painfully—be omitted. Unless world history is
to be simply one thing after another—always a risk to be avoided—major
themes must be identified. Decisions about change over time are unavoid-
able: are there particular turning points, amid which more stable patterns
can be explored? What factors promote change on anything like a global
scale? Finally, geography requires its own priorities. How is the “whole
world” most adequately, yet manageably, represented? What regional defi-
nitions work best in deploying a world history framework?
There is no magic formula, which means that different choices will
emerge. Successful world history frameworks reflect disagreements over
when world history effectively begins, and discussions on this crucial
point have become more lively with growing attention to the impor-
tance of environmental factors. The issue of regional coverage is inevi-
tably challenging, because of the huge range of relevant examples and
identities. Change and continuity properly provoke debate, depending
both on how much detail can be handled successfully and, more funda-
mentally, on what kinds of factors prompt the most fundamental changes
on something like a global scale. While some themes are probably
­unavoidable—it’s hard to imagine a world history program without some
attention to governance structures—thematic opportunities have been

vii
viii Foreword

expanding as the world history domain becomes more familiar, more

open to interactions with crucial topics historians have been exploring in
more limited contexts.
Different vantage points deserve juxtaposition and interaction. For
many people, students particularly but even some instructors, world his-
tory as a subject area suggests a textbook, often a large textbook, and
little else. But the textbook approach, though a valid first step, too often
makes it difficult to challenge and question the choices that have been
made about basic frameworks. Regional and chronological definitions are
taken as givens, rather than as starting points toward exploring and eval-
uating other alternatives. The opportunity, as in this volume, to compare
fundamental orientations, to highlight different options and strengths, is
thus particularly welcome. Any practitioner, even the most experienced,
will emerge with some new possibilities to consider, with new argu-
ments to explore even when existing choices are defended. The chance
to weigh alternatives, and the reasons that underlie the principal choices,
is particularly liberating.
The essays collectively also take up another issue with which any world
history program must contend: the issue of cultural perspective. Most con-
temporary world histories, until very recently, have emerged in the United
States, Australia, or Western Europe. Many, as a result, conform directly
with an older tradition that emphasized Western civilization. A few world
history labels, indeed, pin to products that are only slightly modified from
the Western civilization program: a chapter or two on African kingdoms
and a bow to non-European religions, adorn a structure that is otherwise
European to the core. This “West and the rest” approach is not, it is vital
to note, represented in the present collection, where the entries all deal
with world history far more directly and genuinely.
Still, world historians properly worry that even the most conscientious
effort to free world history from a Western standard of judgment will
fall short—will inevitably incorporate measurements and definitions that,
while unquestionably extended to a global scale, still privilege a Western
framework. One antidote is obvious: try harder to consider world his-
tory approaches that reflect other historiographic traditions—from Islam,
for example, or East Asia or Africa, particularly as these regions begin to
build their own contemporary approaches to the field. Several essays in
this volume offer this welcome opportunity directly, giving readers a new
chance to consider cultural alternatives as part of their decisions about
appropriate frameworks.
 Foreword ix

The volume does not, however, merely highlight differences. Along

with the deliberate and desirable effort to highlight some variety of ana-
lytical options in addressing world history, the essays in this collection
display important areas of agreement on several key topics and issues. A
focus on the advent and ramifications of agriculture—to take an admit-
tedly obvious but essential example—is clearly going to be part of any
world history narrative, no matter what its distinctive features in other
respects. The collection will repay reading that not only highlights
debates and alternatives, but also identifies shared understandings and
approaches.
Ultimately, of course, choices must be made. Any world history expe-
rience should maintain a sense of options, an ability to debate and defend
the selection of time periods or regional clusters or major themes. But it
must also reflect at least tentative judgments about which emphases make
most sense, what themes best capture the most fundamental features of
the human experience. The judgments should always be open to revi-
sion, always tested against relevant counterarguments—but they cannot
be suspended indefinitely. Collectively, the essays in this volume highlight
historians who have some experience in debate and even uncertainty, but
who have figured out at least one acceptable path. The goal is flexibility
and openness, but not irresolution.
Finally, world history, whatever its specific contours, is a decidedly
contemporary subject. Of course it deals with the past. Many of the
essays in this volume stress how far back in time a valid world history
approach must go. Many, also, legitimately highlight how much world
history has contributed to a better understanding of past periods—for
example, the role the Mongol centuries play in exchanges; the complex
trade history of the early modern period, including European–Asian
­relations.
Nevertheless, world history has gained ground because it sets a his-
torical basis for the world we live in, and the world today’s youth will
inherit. It explores the trajectory of regional interconnections, right up
to today’s globalization—and helps make sense of different cultural reac-
tions to the same patterns. It invites fuller understanding of different
regional traditions, along with some unexpected underlying s­ imilarities—
again a vital aspect of global understanding. World history is the history
we need to frame our own lives, at a time when interactions and com-
parisons impinge on literally every region and on most individuals. This
means, in turn, that debating and refining the way we do world history
x Foreword

contributes directly to our contemporary capacity to work toward a more

knowledgeable society. As a result, improving our grasp of the increas-
ingly complex world we must all navigate becomes both a joy and a
necessity.

Fairfax, VA, USA Peter N. Stearns

 Preface

In both compliment and contrast to important recent literature

in the field,1 21st-Century Narratives of World History: Global and
Multidisciplinary Perspectives makes a unique and timely contribution to
world/global historical studies2 and related fields. It addresses essential
theoretical, methodological, organizational and interpretational ques-
tions through direct engagement with the practice of world history.3 It
achieves this by providing concise summaries (i.e., essential frameworks)
of various world historical narratives4 representing well-established and
influential approaches and paradigms impacting the field today.5 These
summaries are written by the authors of the original world historical nar-
ratives themselves. By placing these narrative summaries in clear, direct
relation to and conversation with each other, they are offered the oppor-
tunity to enrich, elucidate and, at times, challenge one another in ways
otherwise difficult to achieve. This approach likewise raises, at its most
acute and critical level, the question of the feasibility, viability, and need
for providing historians as well as other scholars, students, local and
world leaders, and the general reading public with such frameworks in
relation to their research, study, teaching, and/or general understanding
of the world and its history.
Building from this foundation, the present volume aims to: (1) offer
world historians an opportunity to critically reflect upon and refine their
essential interpretational frameworks, (2) facilitate more effective and
nuanced teaching and learning in and beyond the classroom with an
emphasis on comparative critical thinking, (3) provide accessible world

xi
xii Preface

historical contexts for specialized areas of historical as well as other fields

of research in the humanities, social sciences and sciences,6 and (4) pro-
mote comparative historiographical critique which (a) helps identify
continuing research questions for the field of world history in particu-
lar, and (b) fosters global dialogue in relation to varying views of our
ever-increasingly interconnected, interdependent, multicultural, and glo-
balized world and its shared though diverse and often contested history.7
The importance of the latter is grounded in recognition of the fact
that an individual’s or, likewise and relatedly, an entire ethnic, cultural,
religious, political or other social group’s understanding of world his-
tory significantly shapes their response to and, thus, course of action
within the world (i.e., their impact on world history). This includes their
(perceived) relation to and relations with all 'others' who share in that
history.8 In this sense, the volume takes up “some weighty problems sur-
rounding the nature of historiography as a sociological phenomenon and
epistemological endeavor,”9 though it takes up much more as well. It
is through ongoing study of our past—especially in its fullest, broadest
context, i.e., ‘grand narrative’ world history—that we come to under-
stand ourselves and those we share that world with better. With respect
to the present volume, this is not, as Edward Said highlighted, for pur-
poses of domination and exploitation, but humanitarian goodwill.10
Indeed, it is in attempting to articulate our understanding of our history
that we clarify it, for ourselves and for others. The more we are willing to
articulate those understandings in earnest dialogue for the sake of our-
selves as well as our global neighbors, the greater our chances of at least
understanding one another and providing a clear point of reference and
context for trying to correct whatever misunderstandings we may have.
As J.M. Roberts notes in the Preface to his History of the World:

Even if we do not know it, …[world] history is part of our mental furniture.
As most men and women have some notions, however inadequate, about
the way the world came to be what it is, it is all the better if they are made
explicit. …We in fact make judgments about world history all the time. All
the better then to make them as seriously and as consciously as possible.11

Political, social and religious contexts do not, of course, always pro-

vide individuals with the freedom to explore, articulate and dialogue on
their understandings of the world and its history.12 One can only won-
der how much that reality determined the response, or non-response, of
 Preface xiii

some of those who were invited to contribute to this volume. Or per-

haps they declined because the project was headed up by a ‘Westerner’?
Some of course declined simply due to time constraints. Others accepted
the offer, pledging themselves to the project, only to drop out late in
the publication process, leaving the volume without representation from
their world cultural point of view. Yuval Noah Harari, professor of his-
tory at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, submitted a narrative sum-
mary of his Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, but agreement over
terms of contract could not be reached between the respective publish-
ers, forcing him to withdraw his chapter from the volume.
One thing is certain: efforts have been made to include representa-
tives from as many world cultural and linguistic points of view as pos-
sible, within the limited space afforded. Invitations were thus sent to
qualified scholars representing Pacific/Australasian, East, South, Southeast
and Central Asian, Middle Eastern, Sub-Saharan African, Latin American,
Slavic/East European, West European and North American cultural back-
grounds. Specifically, I contacted scholars from Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey,
Afghanistan, India, Japan, China, Korea, the Philippines, Nigeria, Ghana,
Argentina, Israel, Germany, UK, USA and Australia. Efforts were likewise
made to include varying world historical viewpoints, including Western
democratic, neo-Marxian leftist, civilizational, world-system theory, gen-
der, cross-cultural, global-multicultural, and more. That the volume lacks
certain representation is not to be attributed to any narrowness of vision
or prejudice of effort. All those who were invited to contribute were care-
fully selected for their unique world cultural-linguistic vantage, their specific
area of world historical expertise and the distinctiveness of their approach.
In the absence of those who, for whatever reason, have not joined the pro-
ject, those who have provide, within the necessarily limited scope, a well-
rounded representation of an array of cultural-linguistic backgrounds,
areas of expertise and uniqueness of approach. While most (though not
all) of the contributors are physically located within ‘the West’, their per-
sonal cultural and religious backgrounds include Afro-Caribbean, Spanish,
Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Russian, Australasian, West European, and
North American as well as Christian, Muslim, religious humanist, secular,
and possibly atheist.13 To their diverse cultural backgrounds and linguistic
abilities could be added their international travel experience. From this van-
tage, the volume not only merits the subtitle Global and Multidisciplinary
Perspectives,14 but provides source material for comparative cultural, reli-
gious, sociological and political research concerned with major world
xiv Preface

historiographical traditions informed by multiple world cultural traditions in

the early 21st century. Areas of expertise, likewise, range from women’s and
gender history, to big history, cultural history, religious-cultural-national
history and identity, and food history, as well as African, Russian, Central
Asian, Middle Eastern, Islamic, East Asian, Latin American, Afro-Caribbean,
and Indian Ocean history. Beyond this, each of the world history narratives
is informed by some 30–50 years and the comparative critiques some 15–20
years of research and writing, all enriched by an equal depth of cross-cultural
and international experience. The editorial dimensions of the volume are,
likewise, informed by some 25 years of research, translation, teaching and
publication work, including a total of 14 years of residence in Asia, namely
Kazakhstan and Japan.
It is hoped that these multiple world cultural backgrounds, diverse
fields of expertise, varying approaches and long years of experience in the
field of world history have all merged together to produce a high qual-
ity work ‘worth its weight in salt’, though judgment of that must be left
to each reader. No doubt, certain weaknesses will be identified in due
course. Whatever they prove to be, it would be, as highlighted imme-
diately above, unfair to call the volume ‘U.S.-’ or ‘Eurocentric’ simply
because of the residential location of the majority of contributors. While
the introductory and concluding sections may focus on the Western tra-
dition of ‘grand narrative’ and ‘new’ world histories, this is only due to
the nature of the subject matter as well as the intended aims of those
chapters. That the main narratives and critiques of Parts Two and Three
should be called ‘Eurocentric’ in some fashion would be contested by all
the various contributors as well as the editor. Indeed, ‘Eurocentric’ as a
term typically refers to historiography, not (the location of) the people
writing it. Beyond this, in order to help round out the global scope of
the volume, I sketch, in Appendix One, a select number of ‘grand nar-
rative’ world histories which have been published since 1990 in Russian,
Polish, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Kazakh, Hindi, Indonesian, Thai,
Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese.
In terms of the volume’s research profile, there is one thing to bear
in mind: the contributors to the Part II narratives were, based on their
many qualifications and previous publications, explicitly requested to
keep their references to a minimum. The main aims of the volume are to
facilitate comparative critique of major 21st-century world history nar-
ratives while also supplying substantially informed yet readily accessible
world history frames to supply context for various settings of research
 Preface xv

and teaching, not to provide endless references to every detail of their

interpretational schemes. This is sufficiently achieved through reference
to their many previous (or forthcoming) publications. Meanwhile, the
Part Three authors were asked to anchor their critiques through refer-
ence to as much of the scholarly literature as they were reasonably able
within the limited scope of their essays. Their accomplishments in this
regard are reflected in their respective chapters.15 The chapters of his-
torical background (Part I) along with Appendix A comprise the main
research contributions of the volume.
All things considered, if this work furthers the cause of world histori-
cal research, teaching and dialogue, it will have accomplished its main
aims. Only time will tell how effectively it achieves those ends.

Pullman, USA R. Charles Weller

Notes and References

1. In comparison to the present volume, see esp. Dominic Sachsenmaier,
Global Perspectives on Global History: Theories and Approaches in a
Connected World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011);
K.R. Curtis and J.H. Bentley, eds., Architects of World History: Researching
the Global Past (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Blackwell, 2014);
UNESCO’s seven-volume History of Humanity (Paris: UNESCO, 1994–
2008); and Georg G. Iggers, Q. Edward Wang, and Supriya Mukherjee,
A Global History of Modern Historiography (Harlow and New York:
Pearson Education, 2008). See also: Ross E. Dunn, Laura J. Mitchell and
Kerry Ward, eds., The New World History: A Field Guide for Teachers and
Researchers, 2nd ed. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2016);
Jerry H. Bentley, ed., The Oxford Handbook of World History (Oxford and
New York: Oxford University Press, 2011); Kojin Karatani, The Structure
of World History: From Modes of Production to Modes of Exchange, tr.
M.K. Bourdaghs (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014); Patrick
Manning, Navigating World History: Historians Create a Global Past (New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003); Diego Olstein, Thinking History Globally
(Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
2. I am in essential agreement with those who find no clear, technical dis-
tinction between ‘world’ and ‘global’ history; see esp. Merry Wiesner-
Hanks, A Concise History of the World (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2015), p. 6; Sachsenmaier, Global Perspectives on Global History,
notes that “the research commonly subsumed under ‘global history’ is so
xvi Preface

diverse that it cannot possibly be pinned down through exact definitions

and precise categorizations. It is also not feasible to properly separate
‘global history’ from several other terminological options such as ‘world
history’ or ‘transnational history’” (pp. 2–3); See also: G.G. Iggers,
Q.E. Wang, and S. Mukherjee, A Global History of Modern Historiography
(Harlow and New York: Pearson Education, 2008), pp. 389–390; and
Arif Dirlik, “Confounding Metaphors, Inventions of the World: What
is World History for?,” in Writing World History, 1800–2000, ed. B.
Stuchtey and E. Fuchs (London: Oxford University Press on behalf of
the German Historical Institute London, 2002), p. 91, fn1. See also
Q. Edward Wang, ed., World History vs. Global History? The Changing
Worldview in Contemporary China, Special Issue, Chinese Studies in
History, Vol. 42, No. 3 (2009); Pamela Crossley, What is Global History?
(Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2008); and Sebastian
Conrad, What is Global History? (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 2016). If any distinctions between ‘world history’ and ‘global his-
tory’ are to be made, I suggest the following: ‘world history’ is the dia-
chronic study of the way in which world connections have taken shape
across time, whether these be limited, select connections or all known
connections either within or between distinct, defined eras of ‘world his-
tory’ or across the entire span of that history; ‘global history’ is the syn-
chronic study of either limited select or all known global connections at
more specific points of time within that history. There are bound to be
points of debate between these proposed definitions, particularly in allow-
ing more narrow definitions of ‘world history’ to include studies of world
connections “within or between distinct, defined eras of ‘world history’.”
But if these definitions were upheld, those debates would be more about
periodization and would, in fact, contribute to continuing refinement of
world (and thus contextually all) history periodization, sharpening focus
and thus expertise, as well as possibly methodology within both fields
in the process. Note that there must necessarily be a diachronic dimen-
sion to every synchronic study and a synchronic dimension to every dia-
chronic study. This reflects the tension between change and continuity,
fleeting moments vs. long durations. The historian, while concentrating
on ‘change’, must at the same time acknowledge the real historical rela-
tion of the past to the present, i.e., some aspect of the past preserved in
the present, transformed though still containing real historical remnants
of the original form resulting in both continuity and change (cf. humans
themselves as ever-transforming yet remaining integrally themselves). But
no sense of ‘superiority’ of one approach over the other should be pos-
ited at the other’s expense. Both are vital and essential to the continuing
task of historical study.
 Preface xvii

3. 
Part of the conviction behind this volume is that theorizing or phi-
losophizing about history means little until put into practice. Theory
and philosophy must be tested by attempts to apply them through the
actual writing of history. Indeed, the best theorizing and philosophiz-
ing derives from the actual practice of writing history, as opposed to the
imposition of theoretical or philosophical frameworks upon historical nar-
ratives. Cf. Paul Costello, World Historians and Their Goals: Twentieth-
Century Answers to Modernism (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University
Press, 1994), p. 221, who insists on the actual writing of world history as
opposed to merely theorizing about it as one of the criteria for inclusion
in his study.
4. Among the numerous kinds of ‘world history’ which have been both
proposed and undertaken in recent decades—including ‘global’, ‘trans-
national’, ‘transregional’, ‘comparative’, ‘crosscultural’, oceanic, and the
like—‘world histories’ for our purposes within this volume, refer spe-
cifically to what critics have categorized as ‘meta-’, ‘grand’, ‘all-encom-
passing’, or ‘totalizing’ narratives (cf. also ‘macro-histories’); that is,
narratives which attempt to cover the entire history of…what? ‘The his-
tory of humanity’? ‘Deep history’? ‘Life history’? ‘Earth history’? ‘Big
history’? In fact, these five distinct types of ‘meta-narrative’ are vastly
different in scope and range, each ‘all-encompassing’ and ‘totalizing’ in
their own ‘grand’ way. (Note that Breisach is too narrow and even mis-
leading in suggesting that “[s]ince the 1980s, the term metanarrative has
replaced the formerly used phrase philosophy of history.” Ernst Breisach,
On the Future of History: The Postmodernist Challenge and Its Aftermath,
Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2003, p. 122).
5. Providing an essential framework for understanding world history was
a chief concern in the keynote address by Bob Bain, “Parachutists and
Truffle Hunters: Meeting Student Challenges with Scale and Agency
in World History,” at the 22nd Annual World History Association
Conference (North Hennepin Community College, June 26–29, 2013,
Minneapolis, MN).
6. 
Ongoing dialogue between history and science, both with respect to
overall frameworks for understanding our world as well as specialized
areas of research, is both valid and vital. This is especially true in relation
to the still-emerging fields of ‘Big history’ and ‘Deep history’ as well as
more established fields such as ‘Life history’, ‘Earth history’ and evolu-
tionary human history.
7. 
See esp. D. Sachsenmaier, “World History as Ecumenical History?,”
in Journal of World History, Vol. 18, No. 4 (2007): 465–489. Cf. also
the concern and vision expressed in one of UNESCO’s current history
projects, “Promoting Intercultural Dialogue and a Culture of Peace in
xviii Preface

South-East Asia through Shared Histories”: “Events in recent years have

pointed to some contradicting understandings of the past which have led
to tensions between various countries in the sub-region. Some of these
tensions can be seen as grounded in the way past events are taught in
schools and the lingering influence these lessons have on the mind sets
of people. If we wish to change the attitude of the younger generations
towards each other, transformations in the way the history of South-
East Asia is taught at national levels could play a vital role in promoting
mutual understanding and peace among future generations.” UNESCO
Bangkok (URL: http://www.unescobkk.org/culture/heritage/shared-
histories-sea/; last accessed: May 26, 2015). This same concern and
approach has been advocated in relation to Jewish–Christian–Muslim and
other international, intercultural, and interreligious relations contexts.
8. Cf. Paul Costello citing W.H. McNeill: “unalterable and eternal Truth
remains, like the Kingdom of Heaven, an eschatological hope. Mythistory
is what we actually have—a useful instrument for piloting human groups
in their encounter with one another” (World Historians and Their Goals,
p. 222); cf. also Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Myth and Narrative
in International Politics: Interpretive Approaches to the Study of IR
(Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).
9. Sachsenmaier, Global Perspectives on Global History, p. 6.
10. Edward Said, Orientalism, 25th Anniversary Edition (Penguin Books,
2003), p. xix.
11. J.M. Roberts, “Preface,” in A History of the World, Updated (Ashland,
OR: Blackstone Audio, Inc., 2005), ch. 1, 3:25–4:23. Note that the
Preface which was used for the 2005 audio edition was from the 1987
edition of Roberts’ book.
12. Making a slightly different but related point, cf. Sachsenmaier, Global
Perspectives on Global History, where he takes concern for “factors such as
the international academic settings underlying the field, for these doubt-
lessly influence the ideas of historians” (p. 3).
13. These observations are based on public knowledge available through
(auto-)biographical or professional reference, not on any explicit attempt
to inquire regarding either their cultural or religious identity. Use of the
term ‘background’ also reflects a conscious choice to avoid assigning a
particular ethnic, cultural, religious, national or other identity, instead
emphasizing the historical context which has shaped and informed the
various contributors.
14. The term ‘multidisciplinary’ was chosen for two reasons: One, while
most of the contributors are situated professionally within the discipline
of history, a number of them, including the editor, have formal training
in other disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, religious studies,
 Preface xix

cultural studies and so on. Two, the term ‘multifield’ is not used to
describe multiple fields of expertise. In this sense, ‘multidisciplinary’ is
being used in a broader sense.
15. Note that I have added, by his consent, all the references to the chapter
by Diego Olstein.
16. “A World History Skeleton,” in World History: The Basics, by Peter
N. Stearns (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2011), pp. 17–47.
 Acknowledgements

Special thanks are due to more people than I can name in the short
space provided. Among those who can be squeezed in, my doctoral advi-
sors at al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Garifolla Esim and Tursin
Hafizuhli Gabitov, along with Nagima Baitenova, Aktolkyn Kulsariyeva,
Alya Massalimova, Ainur Kurmanaliyeva, Kanat Zatov, Bakitzhan
Satershinov, and a number of other Kazakh scholars who contributed
to my doctoral work and/or graciously hosted me there (2003–6), all
deserve first mention for not only their academic support and guidance,
but their warm hospitality and genuine commitment to international aca-
demic dialogue and exchange. Indeed, they put their reputations on the
line when, in the midst of the War on Terror and the war in Iraq, they
publically defended the ideals and values of international academic dia-
logue and exchange in the midst of what became a national controversy.
They have continued to support my work across the years and remain
engaged in dialogue and exchange through ongoing mutual visits to
one another’s countries and institutions. Tursin Gabitov’s contribution
to the present volume is part of those ongoing exchanges. Both he and
Aktolkyn Kulsariyeva, likewise, contributed to UNESCO’s Kazakh and
Russian versions of Culture of Peace.
Within the U.S. context, Al Andrea was one of the first to welcome me
to the World History Association (WHA), and one of the first in WHA
with whom I had the pleasure of working by virtue of his invitation to
contribute to the ABC-Clio World History Encyclopedia for which he
served as editor-in-chief. He has continued to provide support, guidance

xxi
xxii Acknowledgements

and editorial assistance over the years, including for the present volume.
Much the same could be said for Pat Manning, who chaired one of the
several panels I organized for WHA annual conferences between 2008
and 2011 on the topic of religious interpretations of world history and
their implications for global peace and dialogue. Under his leadership,
the World History Center (WHC) at the University of Pittsburgh
supported that original research project out of which this more broadly
conceived volume eventually emerged. In conjunction with the WHC,
he has remained a mentor across the years, enthusiastically supporting
and obviously contributing to the present work. In fact, I first met Pat at
the World History Center in Tokyo, Japan, during one of his visits there,
where his book on Navigating World History was being translated by
Japanese scholars at the time. Pat also introduced me to Heather Streets-
Salter, who has since become a support, guide and colleague on several
WHA panels, not to mention the one to hire me and first serve as my
director in the world history program at Washington State University
(WSU). John Voll has, likewise, served as a support and guide in my
research since as far back as 2007, offering critical feedback on individual
publications as well as my overall research agenda. This includes not
only the present project, but his sponsorship of me at Georgetown
University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding (ACMCU) during my continuing appointment there as
a (non-residential) visiting researcher (2014–18). Peter Stearns, however,
was the first one I approached, and the first one to agree to contribute to
as well as provide guidance for this project. Indeed, his chapter titled “A
World History Skeleton” in World History: The Basics provided the initial
model and inspiration.16 He has counseled me at crucial junctures along
the way as I shaped the prospectus, invited contributors, and prepared the
volume for publication. Along with a world history narrative, therefore,
the Foreword flows fittingly from his pen. Indeed, all the contributors to
this volume deserve thanks for their enthusiastic support and participation
which has made this project possible. This would include the numerous
emails and requests from me which they have so graciously endured. It
has been a genuine privilege and pleasure to work with such deservingly
reputable world history scholars.
A debt of gratitude also goes to Dominic Sachsenmaier, Jörn Rüsen
and Clif Stratton, as well as Molly Beck, commissioning editor at
Palgrave Macmillan (PM), the PM editorial board and peer reviewers
for all offering critical feedback on the proposal and affirming the value
 Acknowledgements xxiii

of the project as it has taken shape. Both Molly and Oliver Dyer, assis-
tant editor for history at PM, have been a pleasure to work with as well.
The success of the volume is due, in no small part, to their very capa-
ble guidance and assistance. Thanks also to Subasree Sairam, Production
Manager for PM, for her excellent work in guiding the volume along to
completion. And to Laura Shelley for her very careful attention to detail
in preparing the index. There are, likewise, many who have offered criti-
cal feedback on the historical background chapters in particular; they are
recognized within the chapters on which they offered comment.
Among other valued friends and colleagues who have supported and
guided my work across the years, including this project, David Kalivas,
Marina Tolmacheva, David Peetz, Lydia Gerber, Jesse Spohnholz, Phillip
Luke Sinitiere and Sung Choi deserve special mention, along with my
mother, Judy Taylor, and godmother since age 14, Barbara Fraundorfer.
Sincere thanks to these and many more who have all helped make this
volume possible.
 Contents

Part I Historical Background

1 ‘Grand Narrative’ and ‘New’ World Histories: Their

Historical Challenges and Contributions in Western
Scholarship 3
R.Charles Weller

2 ‘Western’ and ‘White Civilization’: White Nationalism

and Eurocentrism at the Crossroads 35
R.Charles Weller

Part II 21st-Century Narratives of World History

3 Periodization in World History: Challenges and

Opportunities 83
Peter N. Stearns

4 “Complexity, Energy and Information in Big History

and Human History” 111
David Christian

xxv
xxvi Contents

5 History Beyond Humanity: Between ‘Big’ and ‘Deep’

History 143
Felipe Fernández-Armesto

6 The Human System: An Introduction 169

Patrick Manning

7 Social and Cultural World History 197

Merry Wiesner-Hanks

8 World History as a Single Story 231

Tamim Ansary

9 Western, Russian, and Islamic Culture in World

Civilizational Perspective 265
Tursin Hafizuhli Gabitov

10 Going Global: Thematic Explorations in World History 291

Candice Goucher

Part III Comparative Historiographical Critiques

11 World History and Perspectivity: Between Necessity and

Opportunity 321
Gotelind Müller

12 World Histories in Conversation 329

Leonid Trofimov

13 Eight World Historians 339

Diego Olstein

Concluding Reflections: A Way Forward: Grand Narrative

World History as Specialization? 347
 Contents xxvii

Appendix A: Other 21st-Century Narratives of World History

from Around the Globe 351

Appendix B: The Politics of Difference in World Historical

Study 365

Index 367
 Editor and Contributors

About the Editor

R. Charles Weller (Ph.D., al-Farabi Kazakh National University) is

Clinical Assistant Professor in the Roots of Contemporary Issues World
History & Asia Programs at Washington State University and a non-
residential Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University's Center for
Muslim-Christian Understanding (2014–2018). He specializes in his-
tory and identity in Tsarist Central Asia and the Islamic world, Western–
Islamic relations, Western Imperialism and Asian/Islamic reform
movements, and world history and historiography.

Contributors

Tamim Ansary is an Afghan-American writer and speaker. His Destiny

Disrupted, A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes won a Northern
California Book Award and his memoir West of Kabul, East of New York
was San Francisco’s 2008 One-City-One-Book pick while also being
used as common freshman reading by many colleges.
David Christian (D.Phil. Oxford, 1974) is a Distinguished Professor
of History and Director of the Big History Institute at Macquarie
University. Along with expertise in Russia and the Soviet Union, he has,
since the 1980s, helped pioneer the emerging field of ‘Big History’.

xxix
xxx Editor and Contributors

He was founding President of the International Big History Association,

and co-founder with Bill Gates, of the Big History Project. He has w
­ ritten
books on 19th and 20th century Russia, on the deep history of Inner
Eurasia, and on big history.
Felipe Fernández-Armesto occupies the William P. Reynolds Chair for
Mission in Arts and Letters at Notre Dame, Indiana. His books include
Millennium (1995), Pathfinders (World History Association Book Prize,
2007), The World: a History (2014), A Foot in the River (2015), and, as
editor, the forthcoming Oxford Illustrated History of the World.
Tursin Hafizuhli Gabitov is Professor of Cultural History and
Philosophy at al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty,
Kazakhstan. He has numerous publications in both Kazakh and Russian,
some of which have also been translated into English. He served three
years as visiting professor at Shahid Beheshti University in Iran and was
co-editor of UNESCO’s Russian-Kazakh version of Culture of Peace.
Candice Goucher is Professor of History at Washington State
University Vancouver and recipient of the WHA Pioneer in World
History award. Among her publications are World History: Journeys from
Past to Present, (London: Routledge, 2008, 2012) and The Cambridge
World History, Volume II: A World with Agriculture (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Patrick Manning is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History,
Emeritus, at the University of Pittsburgh. His publications include
“Inequality: Historical and Disciplinary Approaches” (American
Historical Review, 2017); Big Data in History (2013); Migration in
World History (2nd edn, 2012); The African Diaspora (2009); and
Navigating World History (2003).
Gotelind Müller is Professor of Chinese Studies at the University
of Heidelberg, Germany. Her most recent books are Documentary,
World History, and National Power in the PRC: Global Rise in Chinese
Eyes (2013, pb. 2015); and Designing History in East Asian Textbooks:
Identity Politics and Transnational Aspirations (2011, pb. 2013).
Diego Olstein (Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2003) is
Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. His first book, La
Era Mozárabe (1085–1315) analyzes the economic conflicts and accul-
turation processes that followed the Castilian conquest of Toledo in
 Editor and Contributors xxxi

1085. His Thinking History Globally discusses four strategies (and

their twelve historical branches) for moving beyond national borders,
­language barriers, and enclosed regions—comparing, connecting, con-
ceptualizing, and contextualizing.
Peter N. Stearns is University Professor at George Mason University.
He has written widely on world history and emotions history. He has
taught world history for many years, and helped shaped the initial
Advanced Placement world history program. He has also promoted a
thematic approach to world history, as in his own recent works on the
‘industrial turn’ and on toleration in a global context.
Leonid Trofimov is a native of Russia. He completed his undergradu-
ate work at Novosibirsk State University and his Ph.D. at University
of Illinois at Chicago. He is now Senior Lecturer in Russian history at
Bentley University. His research interests focus on cultural interactions
between 20th-century Russia and the world. His co-edited volume on
the global impact of the Russian revolution is scheduled for publication
by Hackett Press in 2017.
Merry Wiesner-Hanks is Distinguished Professor of History at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is the editor-in-chief of the
nine-volume Cambridge World History (2015), and an author or edi-
tor of more than 30 books and nearly 100 articles that have appeared in
English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Chinese,
Turkish, and Korean.
 List of Figures and Tables

Fig. 6.1 Biological subsystems of a human organism: names,

purposes, agent organs 176
Fig. 6.2 Social subsystems of an early human community:
names, purposes, agent groups 177

Table 4.1 Statistics on human history in the Holocene 128

xxxiii
 PART I

Historical Background
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
the seat of visible lesions. There may be pallor, œdema and swelling,
but not unfrequently there are blood extravasations varying in size
from a pin’s head upward and giving a dark red aspect to the affected
tissues. Under the microscope the affected fibres are seen to have
lost their transverse striation and to have assumed a more or less
granular or hyaline appearance. Next to the gluteal muscles, these
changes are frequently found, in the muscles of the thigh (especially
the rectus femoris, and triceps extensor cruris), and in those of the
loins (psoas, ilio-spinalis, and longissimus dorsi). Exceptionally the
pectoral muscles are involved or even the abdominal muscles. A
considerable straw-colored œdema may be found in the
intermuscular connective tissue.
The red bone marrow primarily of the large bones of the limbs
(femur, tibia, humerus, radius,) and less frequently of other bones,
even of the vertebræ, is often the seat of intense vascular congestion
and even of hemorrhage. The medullary matter is of a deep red or
black color, and there is an abnormal accumulation of red globules in
various conditions of growth and destruction (red nucleated
corpuscles, fragments of corpuscles, colored granules). Dieckerhoff
considers the condition one of osteomyelitis, but it seems to be
rather a sudden, extraordinary exaggeration of the processes of blood
metamorphosis. Neumann found that when the blood regeneration
process is very active even the yellow marrow may be changed into
red, and this throughout all the bones of the extremities.
The kidneys are usually the seat of congestion, and black spots of
infarction, when the disease has lasted for twenty-four hours. In
rapidly fatal cases they may appear normal. There may be
enlargement of the kidneys with softening and granular degeneration
of the renal epithelium in cases that survive for some days.
The bladder contains dark brown or red glairy urine of a high
density and loaded with urea, hæmoglobin, etc.
The terminal portion of the spinal cord and the lumbo-sacral
plexus, or some of its branches, are sometimes blood stained, or the
seat of an exudate or surrounded by one.
Symptoms. In the regular type of hæmoglobinæmia in the horse
the history of the attack is highly significant. The subject is in good
working condition, he may be fat, or lean, but in either case the
muscles are firm and well developed, diet has been liberal,
embracing a large proportion of albuminoids, work has been
constant up to within a day or two preceding the attack, when the
animal has been left absolutely idle in the stall without any reduction
of feed. Then finally it has been suddenly subjected to active exertion
which demands vigorous muscular movement, and above all activity
of the respiratory muscles and the heart. This exertion usually
consists in riding under the saddle or going in harness, but may
attend on casting in the stall, lounging in a ring, or in a playful run
when suddenly set at liberty.
Severe Cases. The attack comes on early in the course of such
exercise. The patient may not have gone more than one hundred
yards from the stable or he may have traveled for half an hour or an
hour, but the disease rarely shows itself after a longer period of work.
The horse which left the stable full of life and spirit, suddenly flags
and hangs on the bit, the ears or head may drop, and one or more
limbs usually the hind ones, are moved stiffly and awkwardly, or
even stagger. He knuckles over at the fetlocks, drags the toes on the
ground, flexes the joints imperfectly, the muscles appearing to be
rigid and uncontrollable, or he crouches, the joints remaining
semiflexed the animal in vain attempting to extend them. The patient
trembles violently, sweats profusely, breathes deeply and rapidly and
assumes a pinched, anxious, agonized expression of countenance.
The heart beats tumultuously, the pulse (in 84 per cent. Friedberger
and Fröhner) is accelerated to a variable degree, and the temperature
is still normal (in 80 per cent. Friedberger and Fröhner), or rarely
exceeds 101.5°F. There is often tenderness on percussion and
sometimes even on manipulation over the loins, short ribs, and the
croup, and pinching of the loins may cause wincing. The affected
muscle or muscles (lumbar, gluteal, crural) are usually firm, hard
and tender, they may be the seat of spasm or of œdema and paresis.
These parts may, however, have their sensitiveness lessened and
even punctures or electric currents may have little effect on them.
Soon the increasing muscular weakness is incompatible with the
maintenance of the standing position, the bending of the limbs and
crouching become extreme, the animal makes vain efforts to control
the muscles and extend the joints, and helplessly drops to the
ground. When down he moves his legs convulsively, but is unable to
coördinate the muscular movements and all efforts to rise are
unavailing.
The spasms and paresis may attack other parts of the body such as
the pectoral region the shoulders and even the abdomen, but the
earliest and most persistent disorder is usually in the divisions of the
lumbo-sacral plexus affecting the supra or sublumbar muscles, the
gluteals, the patellar (triceps,) the adductors and the abductors. The
caudal muscles are exceptionally involved. In a series of ten cases
Bouley noticed that the left hind limb was always the first paralyzed
(evidently a simple coincidence).
Urine may be passed freely or the bladder may be paretic so that it
must be emptied with the catheter. In severe cases the urine is of a
high density and of a dirty brownish gray, red or almost black color.
It contains no blood clots, nor blood globules, but granular
hæmoglobin, tyrosin and other waste products contribute to produce
the reddish color. In some instances there is an abundant
metalbumen which renders the liquid glairy, causing it to fall in fine
threads or films. Urea is usually present in great excess. Hippuric
and even uric acid are usually present but not in excess. When the
disease has advanced to nephritis the albuminuria is complicated by
the presence of casts of the uriniferous tubes, renal epithelium, white
and even red blood globules.
During the violence of the attack there is no disposition nor leisure
to eat, but when the more violent symptoms abate appetite is usually
manifested. There may be more or less paresis of both bowels and
bladder, so that neither fæces nor urine is passed yet in other cases
both are discharged spontaneously.
The senses are preserved, excepting in the case of the affected
muscles and the integument which covers them. There may,
however, be more or less dullness and stupor in certain cases from
poisoning of the cerebral centres by the poisons circulating in the
blood.
Mild Cases. In the mildest cases there is stiffness and lameness
in one, or less frequently in both hind limbs, coming on when put to
work after a period of idleness, and not associated with any
appreciable lesion of the limb in question. There may or may not be
hardness and swelling of the gluteal or other muscles of the quarter
or loins. This has the appearance of rigidity or spasm but may be
primarily due to œdema or exudation into the substance of the
muscle. In some instances the muscles of the breast, shoulder, or
forearm are the seat of the trouble. Muscular trembling and
perspiration may be present and if the urine is examined, it is often
found to be glairy, or charged with urea, and allied nitrogenous
products. These cases are not benefited by local applications, but
they recover (temporarily) under rest and above all under active
eliminating treatment. Under gentle and progressive exercise too
they improve and get well. They recur, however, with great readiness
under a rich nitrogenous diet and a temporary rest followed by
sudden exertion.
Between the mildest and gravest cases there are infinite gradations
of severity, one-third to one-half of the worst cases usually
terminating fatally, whereas the mildest are always amenable to
treatment.
Progress. The course of the disease depends on the severity of the
attack but also, in no small degree, on the good judgment of the
driver. Cases that develop with great suddenness, and apparently
with extreme severity may subside spontaneously if the animal is
placed in a condition of absolute rest. If, however, we can secure rest
of the muscles of progression only, while the breathing remains rapid
and labored, improvement is unlikely, as the system continues to
receive large accessions of the toxic products. When the patient is
down and unable to rise, the enforced rest may be beneficial, but too
commonly, the greater effort with which breathing is carried on in
the recumbent position, and the frequent ineffectual struggles of the
limbs prevent the requisite muscular quietude.
In some cases, and especially in the mildest, recovery may seem to
have been effected in a few hours, and in others it will be seen in
twenty-four or forty-eight hours, while in still others the paresis and
helplessness may continue for a week and yet be followed by
recovery. In these cases appetite may be retained in greater or less
degree, but the intestinal peristalsis is usually weak and imperfect,
the fæces small in quantity and dry, and the bladder atonic so that
the urine may have to be drawn off with the catheter. It usually
retains the deep red color, or improvement may be heralded by a
change to a dirty grayish hue. If, however, it shows an excess of
albumen, cylindroid casts entangling renal epithelium and white or
red globules it will indicate the access of diffuse nephritis and a
prolonged or even a fatal illness.
When control of the limbs is not restored at the end of a week, the
paretic muscles usually undergo marked and rapid wasting, which
may last for months or years. This is especially common in the case
of the patellar muscles (muscle of the fascia lata, triceps extensor
cruris) in which the atrophy may become so extreme that the skin
covering the inner and outer sides of the thigh may be brought
virtually in contact in front of the femur. This entails an almost
complete inability to sustain the body on the hind limbs. When
atrophy is less extreme, there is only a weakness, stiffness, or
swaying or staggering on the hind limbs in progression.
In fatal cases death may occur early in connection with the violent
struggles, the excited breathing, pulmonary hypostasis and
congestion, a cyanotic hue of the visible mucous membranes and a
gradual increase of stupor. Though delayed for several days, there is
a continuation of the muscular struggles, and the labored breathing;
the red or glairy character of the urine persists or is exaggerated; the
nervous irritability increases, with muscular trembling; and cyanosis,
or stupor increases until death.
The mortality is always high in the severe forms of the disease, the
deaths ranging from 20 per cent. upward.
After a first attack there is a strong predisposition to a second
under similar exciting conditions.
Diagnosis. The peculiar symptoms of this disease and the
circumstances attending its onset, are usually sufficient to
distinguish it from all others. There may be danger of confounding
certain cases with thrombosis of the posterior aorta, or of the iliac
arteries or their branches, but the absence, in such cases, of the
special history of the attack and of the morbid state of the urine, and
the absence of pulsation in the arteries distal to the thrombosis will
serve to prevent confusion. Spinal myelitis will be distinguished by
the gradual nature of the onset, by the absence of the conditions
attending on the attack of hæmoglobinæmia, and usually by the
absence of hæmoglobin, urea and other nitrogenous products in
excess in the urine.
 Prevention. The hard worked or systematically exercised horse,
which is at the same time heavily fed must not be left in a state of
absolute rest in his stall for twenty-four hours. A fair amount of
exercise must be given on every day in the week, and at the same
time, the food should be restricted in ratio with the restriction of
exercise. Turning for an hour or two daily into a yard may be a
sufficient precaution. When from any cause, rest is imperative, the
diet must be materially reduced and given in part in a laxative form
(bran, roots), or a slight laxative (Glauber salts) or diuretic
(saltpeter) may be added. Cleanliness and a free ventilation of the
stable, are also of value in obviating at once auto-intoxication and
the admission of poison through the lungs. In the same way a free
allowance of drinking water is beneficial as favoring a general
elimination from the various emunctories, and a dilution of the
plethoric blood.
These precautionary measures are especially important in the case
of horses which have passed through a first attack and which are in
consequence strongly predisposed to a second. Horses fed liberally
on highly nitrogenous food (oats, beans, peas, cotton seed meal), will
also require specially careful oversight when at rest for a day or two
only.
Treatment. The first and perhaps the most important
consideration is absolute rest. If the subject is stopped instantly on
the appearance of the first symptoms, the disease may be often
aborted. It is better to avoid the exercise of walking to a stable until
such time as the severity of the attack has somewhat moderated and
then to move the subject only in the slowest and quietest possible
way. If the patient is already down and unable to rise, he may be
carried to the nearest stable in an ambulance or on a stone-boat, and
there helped to his feet and supported in slings. Though he may be
unable to continue in the standing position without the sling, yet if
he can use his limbs at all for support, and is prevented from lying
down, the breathing will be rendered so much more free and quiet,
that it may greatly lessen the transfer of the poisonous elements into
the general circulation and materially contribute to recovery. If,
however, he cannot stand on his limbs at all, but must settle in the
slings, the compression of the chest will so excite the breathing that
it will induce dyspnœa, pulmonary congestion and a rapidly fatal
result. In such a case a good bed must be provided and the patient
made as comfortable as possible in the recumbent position.
In some cases in the earliest stages a full dose of sweet spirits of
nitre or even half a pint of whiskey has seemed to assist in aborting
the disease though the urine was already of a deep red color. It
probably acted by supporting the already oppressed heart, and
securing a prompt elimination by the kidneys.
Friedberger and Fröhner strongly recommend bleeding in all cases
of dyspnœa and excited heart action, and considering the plethoric
condition of the animal it would equally commend itself in other
cases as well. This is the most prompt sedative of the nervous and
vascular excitement, and the most speedy and certain means of
removing much of the poisons accumulated in the blood, and of
diluting what remains by reason of the absorption of liquids from
every available source. This will more than counterbalance any
temporary increase of poisons drawn from the portal system to fill up
the vacuum in the systemic veins caused by the emission of blood.
When the thick tarry condition of the blood seriously hinders a
speedy abstraction both jugulars may be opened at once.
In some cases of great nervous excitement bromides may be useful
in moderating circulatory and respiratory movement, but on the
whole the advantage is greater from an immediate resort to
eliminating agents.
One of the most effective agents is water. If the patient is thirsty he
should have all he will drink, and if not, it may even be given from a
bottle, or thrown into the rectum. A still more effective resort would
be to introduce water intravenously in the form of a normal saline
solution, or even to pass it into the trachea through a small cannula
or large hypodermic needle. This serves to dilute the over dense
blood, to stimulate the kidneys and other emunctories to active
secretion, and to retain in solution the hæmoglobin, urea and other
products which would otherwise cause greater irritation. This would
be especially applicable after the blood tension had been diminished
by phlebotomy.
Warm fomentations to the loins or croup are not without their
influence. They tend to soothe the irritated parts and to solicit the
action of the kidneys more particularly. The old resort of a fresh
sheep skin, with the fleshy side in, may be used as a substitute.
 Perhaps the most important indication is to secure depletion from
the overloaded portal system and liver. Where nothing better offers,
a pint or quart of castor oil, or a pound of Glauber salts, or a half
drachm of podophyllin and four drachms of aloes may be given. If
available 1 to 1½ grains of eserine, or 7 grains of barium chloride
may be given hypodermically in distilled water or that which has
been raised to the boiling point. This may be supplemented by
frequent injections of hot soap suds or even of laxative saline
solutions. If the bowels can be roused to free secretion the removal of
toxic matters from the portal blood and the delay in the progress of
similar matters through the liver will go far toward securing a
favorable result. When free purgation has been secured recovery can
usually be counted on.
The action on the bowels must be followed up by diuretics to
eliminate the offensive matters from the general system. Colchicum
has been recommended because of its action in increasing the solids
of the urine, and this may be combined with saltpeter or other
diuretic, or the latter may be used alone and repeated twice a day. If,
however, the patient can, by the free use of common salt or
otherwise, be induced to drink freely of water, the elimination
through the kidneys will be sufficiently secured.
The muscular weakness and paralysis that remain after the acute
symptoms have subsided must be met by stimulating liniments and
even blisters to the loins or affected muscles, by the internal use of
strychnia (2 grs. twice daily) until the jerking of the muscles
indicates that its physiological action has been secured, and by an
electric current daily for ten minutes at a time through the affected
nerves and muscles. Animals that have been helpless for weeks have,
in our hands, recovered under such treatment, and even cases of
several months’ standing, with the most extensive atrophy of the
triceps, and in which the animal could barely stand, have made a
satisfactory recovery.
Any remaining nephritis must be treated according to its
indications.
During recovery and in the convalescent animal the diet should be
laxative and non-stimulating. Bran mashes, turnips, beets, carrots,
green fodder, ensilage and scalded hay may be allowed. Oats, corn,
beans, peas, vetches, etc., must be carefully avoided. If the food fails
to maintain the bowels in a gently relaxed condition one, two or
more ounces of sulphate of soda may be added daily.
In the mild cases a good dose of purgative medicine succeeded by a
course of diuretics will serve a good purpose.
In all cases alike work must be resumed very gradually. At first the
animal may be walked a few hundred yards, and the pace or load and
duration of exercise may be increased day by day until full work can
be safely endured. In an animal that has once suffered the same
gradual inuring to labor should be followed, after any short period of
rest on a fairly good ration.
 JAUNDICE, ICTERUS, THE YELLOWS.
Symptomatic. Causes: Mechanical obstruction of bile duct, gall-stones, hydatids,
distomata, extraneous bodies, inflammation, stricture, obliteration, absence,
ulceration, spasm, tumor, enlarged lymph glands, gastric tumors, pancreatic,
kidney or omental tumor, aneurism, fæcal accumulation, pregnancy, ovarian
tumor: Without mechanical obstruction, ptomaines and toxins, animal venoms,
mineral poisons, hepatic atrophy, fear, other emotions, cerebral concussion,
imperfect oxidation, excess of bile, hepatic inflammation, constipation and
reabsorption of bile, experimental jaundice, balance of tension in gall ducts and
blood vessels, duodenitis, compression of aorta, hæmatoidin and bilirubin,
destruction of blood globules by hydroæmia, taurocholate of soda, chloroform,
ether, freezing, heat, electricity, alkalies, nitrites. Hæmoglobin: Its solubility in
horse. Bile acids and blood pigment. Summary of causes. Gravity of icterus.
Symptoms: Coloration, yellow, orange, brown, of tissues and secretions: Tests,
staining white paper, Gmelin’s test, nitric and sulphuric acids, rainbow hues:
Pettenkofer’s test for bile acids, syrup and sulphuric acid, dark violet: Stranburg’s
test syrupy paper and sulphuric acid, dark violet; clay colored fœtid stools; gravity.
The terms icterus and jaundice are applied to a yellowness of the
mucosæ, urine, skin and tissues caused by the presence in them of
the coloring matters of bile. The condition is a symptom of many
different affections rather than a disease per se, yet the phenomenon
is so characteristic that it has been hitherto accorded a special place
and article in systematic works.
Jaundice is either associated with mechanical obstruction of the
bile duct or ducts, or it is independent of such obstruction. The
following enumeration of its causes slightly modified from
Murchison, is equally applicable to the lower animals as to man:
A. Jaundice From Mechanical Obstruction of the Bile Duct.
I. Obstruction by foreign bodies within the duct:

1. Gall stones and inspissated bile.

2. Hydatids and distomata.
3. Foreign bodies from the intestines.
II. Obstruction by inflammatory tumefaction of the duodenum or
of the lining membrane of the bile duct with exudation into its
interior.
III. Obstruction by stricture or obliteration of the duct.

1. Congenital deficiency of the duct.

2. Stricture from perihepatitis.
3. Closure of the orifice of the duct in consequence of ulcer of the
duodenum.
4. Stricture from cicatrization of ulcers in the bile duct.
5. Spasmodic stricture.
IV. Obstruction by tumors closing the orifice of the duct or
growing in its interior.
V. Obstruction by pressure on the duct from within, by:

1. Tumors projecting from the liver itself.

2. Enlarged glands in the fissure of the liver.
3. Tumor of the stomach.
4. Tumor of the pancreas.
5. Tumor of the kidney.
6. Post peritoneal or omental tumor.
7. An abdominal aneurism.
8. Accumulation of fæces in the bowels.
9. A pregnant uterus.
10. Ovarian and uterine tumors.
B. Jaundice Independent of Mechanical Obstruction of the Bile
Ducts.
I. Poisons in the blood interfering with the normal
metamorphosis of bile.
1. The poisons of the various specific fevers (Anthrax, Texas fever, Hog cholera,
Swineplague, Petechial fever, Pyæmia, Septicæmia, etc.).
2. Animal poisons: snake poison.
3. Mineral poisons: phosphorus, mercury, copper, antimony, etc.
 4. Chloroform, ether, etc.
5. Acute atrophy of the liver.
II. Impaired or deranged innervation interfering with the normal
metamorphosis of bile.
1. Severe mental emotions: fright, anxiety, etc.
2. Concussion of the brain.
III. Deficient oxygenation of blood interfering with the normal
metamorphosis of bile.
IV. Excessive secretion of bile, more of which is absorbed than can
undergo the normal metamorphosis.
Congestion of the liver: a. Mechanical, b. Active, c. Passive.
V. Undue absorption of bile into the blood from habitual or
protracted constipation.
Mechanical obstruction, by tying the bile ducts in a dog, caused in
two hours yellow coloration of the contents of the hepatic lymphatics
and thoracic duct, and also of the blood in the hepatic veins
(Saunders). That this jaundice is due to reabsorption and not to
suppressed secretion of bile, already present in the blood, may be
fairly inferred, from the complete absence of icterus, where, from
general disease of the liver, the secretion of bile has been entirely
suspended, and in which the gall ducts and bladder contain only a
little gray mucus (Haspell, Frerichs, Budd, Murchison), also from the
fact that after complete extirpation of the liver in frogs not a trace of
biliary acids nor pigment can be detected in the blood, urine, or
muscular tissue (Müller, Runde, Lehmann, Moleschott). Bile acids
and bile pigment are formed in the liver by disintegration of blood
globules, and when present in excess in the blood it is by virtue of
reabsorption.
This reabsorption will take place under the slightest favoring
influence. The obstructions in the bile duct, above referred to, cause
the tension in these ducts to exceed that of the blood in the
capillaries of the liver and at once osmosis of bile into the blood
vessels sets in. This may occur from so slight a cause as the
congestion and swelling of the duodenal mucosa around the opening
of the bile duct. Again reabsorption of bile may be determined by a
lessening of the normal fullness and tension of the hepatic capillaries
as when the aorta is mechanically compressed by abscess, neoplasm,
ingesta, or otherwise, just behind the diaphragm (Heidenham,
Brunton). The cause is the same in both cases, namely, the want of
balance between the fullness and tension of the bile ducts, and the
hepatic blood vessels. There is increased fullness of the hepatic
biliary ducts, or decreased plenitude of the hepatic capillaries and
lymphatics.
It must be added, however, that the coloring matter of the bile is
apparently produced, in the liver, from that of the blood, and that the
pigment (hæmatoidin), found in old extravasations of blood, is
probably identical with bilirubin, and that any agent or condition
which causes liberation of the coloring matter of the red blood
globules, will cause a staining of the tissues, like that of jaundice. The
following agents are known to have this effect on the blood globules:
water, in hydroæmic states of the blood (Hermann); taurocholate of
soda from absorption of bile (Frerichs, Kuhne, Feltz, Ritter);
chloroform (Chaumont); ether (Burdon-Sanderson); freezing
(Rollet); a high temperature +60° C. (Schultze); frictional and
induction currents of electricity (Burdon-Sanderson); the alkalies
(ammonia, potash and soda) and nitrites when present in excess.
The injection of hæmoglobin into the veins of dogs has been
followed by the appearance of bile pigment in the urine, but
Naumyn, Wolff, Legg and Brunton failed to obtain the same result in
rabbits.
It is noticeable that the hæmoglobin of horses’ blood is very
soluble at all temperatures and that of dogs very slightly so (Burdon-
Sanderson). This may serve to explain the great prevalence among
solipeds of diseases, associated with dusky brown or yellow
discoloration of the mucosæ, with petechiæ, and with the passage of
blood pigments in the urine. It may further explain the usually
benignant course of jaundice in the horse and its extreme gravity in
the dog.
There is further reason to believe that the bile acids, when in
excess, may be transformed into bile pigment in certain conditions of
the blood, as occurs under the action of sulphuric acid out of the
body (Stœdler, Meukomen, Folwarcyny, Röhrig). Moreover, in the
healthy state, the greater part of the bile secreted, including acids
and pigment, is re-absorbed from the intestinal canal, but is oxidized
and decomposed in the blood so that it cannot be detected, in blood
or urine. But let the transformation be interrupted, as in certain
diseases of the lungs, with imperfect oxidation, and the bile
circulates in the blood, stains tissues and urine, and in short causes
jaundice.
To sum up: it may be said that icterus is probably never due to
simple inactivity of the liver: it may, however, be caused by excessive
secretion of bile which is re-absorbed from obstructed bile ducts or
bowels:—it may result from imperfect transformation, in the blood,
of the bile which is normally re-absorbed from the intestine: or it
may possibly be caused by the formation of pigments in the blood
from the abnormal transformation of bile acids, or by solution of the
hæmoglobin of the blood corpuscles.
The gravity of jaundice varies as much as its causes. It is well
known that the system may be saturated with bile, and the tissues
and urine deeply stained without much constitutional disorder. The
pigment alone is not an active poison. But there may be much
attendant suffering from obstructed biliary ducts or bowels, from
diseases of the lungs, or from disintegration of the blood globules
and imperfect nutrition, or there may be profound nervous
prostration and disorder from uræmia, or from the presence in the
blood of an excess of effete and partially oxidized albuminoids (See
Azotæmia). According to our present knowledge, constitutional
disorder, prostration and suffering in cases of jaundice, are mainly
due to the presence in the circulation of these albuminoids, and of
taurocholic acid which latter has a most destructive effect on the
blood corpuscles.
The symptoms, therefore, are not characteristic apart from the
yellow coloration of the tissues and urine and the chemical reactions
of the bile acids and bile pigments furnished by the latter.
The coloration of the tissues may be a simple tinge of yellow
especially noticeable in the eye (conjunctiva), or it may amount to
the darkest shades of orange and brown. It may or may not be
complicated by the presence of spots or patches of blood-staining
(ecchymosis) on the visible mucous membranes but especially in
cases complicated by poisoning with taurocholic acid or effete
nitrogenous products.
The urine may be similarly colored in all shades of yellow or
orange brown, and may leave a correspondingly deep stain on white
paper.
The test for bile pigments (Gmelin’s) is simple and beautiful. Pour
a little nitric acid into a test tube held obliquely and then add a few
drops of sulphuric acid, and finally a little urine, so slowly, that it will
remain on the surface. Soon at the point of junction appear in
succession the various colors of the rainbow: yellow, green, blue,
violet, red and lastly a dirty yellow. It is open to this objection that
the characteristic play of colors may be produced by alcohol in the
absence of bile pigments. Indican also will produce the green and
yellow with blue between but never the violet nor red, nor all in their
regular order.
A second mode of applying this test is by spreading a few drops of
the urine on a white plate and letting fall a drop of nitric acid in the
centre. The play of colors is very characteristic.
The test for bile acids (Pettenkofer’s) is to place a portion of the
urine in a test tube, and after adding a drop of syrup, to add
cautiously, drop by drop, two-thirds of the amount of sulphuric acid.
Shake the mixture and set aside for some minutes. If sufficient heat
is not produced by the mixing of the acid and urine warm slightly.
The mixture becomes of a dark violet color which is destroyed by a
temperature a little above 140° Fah.
A convenient application of this test (Stranburg) is to add a little
cane sugar to the urine, dip a piece of filtering paper in the mixture,
dry it thoroughly, pour a drop of sulphuric acid on the paper and
allow it to run partially off. In a quarter of a minute a beautiful violet
color is produced, best seen by holding up the paper to the light and
looking through it (Brunton).
In cases due to obstruction of the bile ducts the dung is destitute of
bile, whitish, often clayey and fœtid, while in cases due to
reabsorption without obstruction the fæces have their natural color
and odor.
It is needless to enumerate all the concomitant symptoms of
jaundice which will be better noticed under the different disorders
which determine it, for a list of which see the causes.
The gravity of the affection will depend on the dangerous nature of
these concurrent diseases, and the destructive changes in the liver
and blood rather than on the depth of color in the textures.
 CATARRHAL ICTERUS (JAUNDICE) OF
SOLIPEDS.
Causes: infection from duodenum through biliary duct. Suppression of bile
favors. Musty, heated, mow burnt fodder, over feeding, irregular feeding, or
watering, over work, worms, fatigue, damp stables, duodenal congestion, gall-
stones, concretions, pancreatic tumor, ascaris in bile ducts, distoma, infection
through portal vein, toxins. Symptoms: of duodenal catarrh, icterus, yellow,
viscous, odorous urine, dullness, weakness, somnolence, tardy pulse and
breathing, costiveness, or diarrhœa, pale, fœtid stools. Duration: 2 to 3 weeks or
longer. Lesions: duodenitis, distended biliary and pancreatic ducts, calculi,
enlarged softened liver and kidneys. Diagnosis: icteric symptoms in absence of
fever. Prognosis: usually favorable. Treatment: laxative diet, pasture, soiling,
ensilage, roots, fruits, water freely, exercise, antisepsis, elimination, laxatives,
cholagogues, diuretics, calomel, salines, nitro-muriatic acid, podophyllin, castor
oil, aloes, tartar emetic, bitters, sodium bicarbonate.
Causes. This may be said to be an extension of infection from the
duodenum through the bile ducts. The microbes of the intestinal
canal become acclimatized by living in the bile-charged contents of
the duodenum until they acquired the power of survival and
multiplication in the biliary ducts themselves. The well known
antiseptic qualities of the bile, constitute a powerful barrier to this,
yet the power of adaptation on the part of certain germs is greater
than the defensive action of the bile. The attack is however mostly in
connection with indigestion or muco-enteritis, and a more or less
perfect suspension of biliary secretion, so that this defensive action is
reduced to its minimum and the germs can ascend the bile ducts in
the mucous secretion as a culture medium, and by interference with
the resumption of a free hepatic secretion, they succeed in safely
colonizing themselves in the mucosa and hepatic parenchyma.
Whatever, therefore, interferes with the integrity of the duodenal
functions directly contributes to the extension of infection from
bowel to liver. Old, heated, musty, cryptogamic, dusty fodder, grains
that have been badly harvested in wet seasons, feed that has been
damp and fermented, overloading of the stomach, irregular feeding
and watering, giving drink after a feed of grain, underfeeding,
overwork, worms, excessive fatigue, damp, dark stables, etc., tend to
induce indigestions and to lay the bile ducts open to infection.
Blocking of the bile duct and stasis of its contents may be a sufficient
cause. The swollen mucosa around the orifice of the duct not only
blocks the passage but favors the formation of a mucous plug as
recorded by Benjamin of an equine patient. Wolff found obstruction
of the duodenum in the horse by a mass of ingesta, and blocking of
the gall duct, with jaundice.
Gall stones and concretions are very direct causes of biliary
obstruction and jaundice. Though less common in horses than cattle,
these are not unknown in idle, pampered animals when on dry
winter feeding.
Tumors of the pancreas or adjacent organs pressing on the gall
duct are recognized as causes of equine icterus, (Megnin, Nocard).
With any obstruction to the bile a disturbance of balance of
pressure between the bile ducts and the hepatic veins is brought
about by respiratory movements. On the one hand the aspiratory
power of the chest empties the hepatic veins, lessening blood
pressure, and in expiration the contraction of diaphragm and
abdominal muscles compresses the gall ducts increasing their
tension and favoring absorption of bile.
The entrance into the bile duct of the ascaris megalocephala is at
once a cause of obstruction and of the transference of duodenal
microbes, and the presence of trematodes (fasciola hepatica, or
distoma lanceolatum) will also favor obstruction. Other parasites,
like the echinococcus or actinomycosis, may press on the biliary
ducts and determine jaundice.
Another mode of infection is by way of the portal vein, the
microbes entering from the intestine and becoming arrested and
colonized in the liver (Dieckerhoff).
Whether from the presence of the microbes or from the absorption
of ptomaines and toxins from the intestines, the radical biliary ducts
become inflamed, swollen, and even blocked, and the hepatic cells
degenerated or even completely devitalized, so that they fail to take
an aniline stain. In such cases the remaining sound hepatic cells go
on producing bile, but as this cannot any longer escape through the
partially obstructed interlobular biliary radicles, it is largely
absorbed and produces icterus. Cadeac mentions a case of this kind
in a mare in which the toxic matters had not only led to hepatic
disease, but also to structural changes in the eliminating organ (the
kidney).
Symptoms. In the horse the disease is mostly attendant on
subacute duodenitis, and even when this is associated with infective
catarrh of the biliary passages the kidneys remain mostly sound and
active, and eliminate alike the bile pigments and the more toxic
matters so that the disease is not often grave. Beside the essential
feature of yellow mucosæ, and urine, the latter viscous and smelling
strongly, there is profound depression, sluggishness, weakness and
somnolence. Imperfect muscular control and even slight paresis may
be present. Tardy pulse and breathing are at times noticeable. At
others these, like the temperature, are normal. The mouth is hot and
dry. The urine may be slightly albuminous. The bowels incline to
costiveness from lack of their customary stimulus, yet this in turn
may give rise to diarrhœa. In either case, as the disease advances, the
defecations lose the healthy yellowish brown color, becoming pale
and fœtid.
Duration. The attack may last one, two or three weeks, and
generally ends in recovery. With irremediable structural lesions, it is
of course permanent and even fatal.
Lesions. The most common feature is duodenitis with thickening
around the orifice of the common bile and pancreatic duct. The
biliary ducts may be distended and their contents more than usually
viscid and glairy from the presence of pus. Their mucosa may show
ramified redness, or concretions as casts or calculi. The liver is
enlarged, soft and friable giving way readily under the pressure of the
finger. Enlargement of the kidneys is usually present, the cortical
substance having a brownish red and the medullary portion a
yellowish pink hue.
Diagnosis. The absence of hyperthermia in jaundice, serves to
distinguish it from the acute febrile affections (pneumonia,
influenza, contagious pneumonia, petechial fever, etc.,) which are
marked by yellowness of the mucosæ and skin.
Prognosis. The merely functional forms of icterus in solipeds
usually end in recovery.
 Treatment. The first consideration is a laxative diet. A run at
pasture will usually meet every indication. Fresh cut grass, ensilage,
turnips, carrots, potatoes, beet, apples, or other succulent diet may
be given as substitute. Bran mashes and hay cut and moistened may
be allowed in the absence of the above. Abundance of water and
especially cool water will stimulate bowels, liver and kidneys, favor
the elimination of the bile by contraction of the biliary ducts, and
hasten the expulsion of the poisons through the kidneys. Regular
exercise an hour after meals stimulates both bowels and liver to
action.
Medicinal treatment is largely directed to antisepsis of the bowels
and the arrest of the production of injurious toxins; elimination from
the bowels and incidental depletion from the portal vein and liver;
antisepsis and stimulation of the liver; and stimulation of the urinary
secretion.
The preparations of mercury fill several of these indications.
Calomel 2 drs., or blue mass 1½ dr., is not only a soothing laxative
and antiseptic, but seems to operate as a calmative and antiseptic to
the liver as well. It may be continued in 5 to 10 grain doses two or
three times a day, according to the size of the animal and the
condition of the bowels, and associated with ½ dr. belladonna
extract to each dose together with a bitter (quassia, gentian, nux
vomica). Or 4 or 5 ozs. sulphate of soda may be given three times a
day, with 2 drs. salicylate of soda as an antiseptic. Or, to increase the
hepatic action, nitro-muriatic acid largely diluted may be given in
sixty drop doses thrice a day in the drinking water. These are
especially valuable for their antiseptic action, cutting off at once the
source of nervous irritation from the attendant indigestions, and
duodenal congestion, and arresting the flow of the irritant toxins and
other products through the portal system. Podophyllin, castor oil,
aloes, rhubarb, often act well by depletion from the portal vein, and
expulsion of indigestible and irritant matters from the intestines, but
there is more danger of resulting swelling of the duodenal mucosa
than with the mercurials or aqua regia. Goubaux recommends 2½
drs. of tartar emetic.
Siedamgrotzky has had good results from an electric current sent
through the region of the liver, but in the horse this is rarely
demanded.
 A course of bitters, with bicarbonate of soda in small doses, may be
demanded to re-establish the healthy tone of the stomach and
intestines, and a run at pasture, or at least an open air life, exercise,
and a laxative diet with abundance of good water should be secured.
Any undue costiveness should be counteracted at once by a saline
laxative.