Williams-9-22-23-12

PART V

Europe and Russia

Introduction to Europe and Russia As you read about Europe and other countries such as Russia, one of the first things to recognize is the great size of Russia, particularly in comparison with the relatively small countries of Europe. While Europe is often referred to as a “continent,” it isn’t actually a continent when you compare it with the physical separation of the other continents. Europe is part of the continent of Eurasia. However, some people separate Europe from Asia because of its cultural history. Do you see a physical dividing line? I don’t. Our concepts about where Europe begins and ends were created in the 17th through the 19th centuries, when the notion of a “grand tour” swept the popular imagination of Europe and, eventually, the Americas. On such a tour, young people completing their education would—often with the assistance of a wealthy sponsor or parent—spend several months (or years) visiting the major sites of Western Europe. These sites included (but were not limited to) France (especially Paris), Switzerland, Italy (especially Venice and Rome), Germany, Austria (that is, Vienna) and the Netherlands. This idea of completing one’s education by seeing and experiencing (urban) “Europe” set in place a concept of Europe that included only the West. It also fixed a set of locations that one must experience to be “truly cul tured.” Full disclosure: I spent a full year in Europe and the Near East in my gap year between undergrad and grad school; I paid for it myself, but ran out of money right away, so I worked as a ski-lift operator in Bavaria for the PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS FIGURE V.0 Chris Auxer, accordion (Sweden)