Lynn M. Case

Franco-Italian relations, 1860-1865 : the Roman question and the convention of September

A history of American foreign policy. By JOHN HOLLADAY LATANIL Revised and enlarged by DAVID W. WAINHOUSE. New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1934.

A Duel of Giants in Old Stambul Stratford versus Thouvenel

4.00. The United States and the Caribbean area. By DANA G. MUNRO. Boston: World Peace Foundation, 1934. Pp. 321.

Book Review:Venetia Redeemed: Franco-Italian Relations 1864-1866 John W. Bush

2.00. In many respects Professor Munro is unusually well qualified to write this book. His previous work on the Central American republics is a notable contribution to our knowledge of these turbulent and interesting states. His service as American minister to Haiti gives him a useful perspective in dealing with Caribbean problems. He presents the facts lucidly and coolly, and in an interesting style. The title of the book may appear slightly misleading. There is no attempt to deal with American possessions in the Caribbean, such as Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands. On the other hand, continental states such as Nicaragua and Panama are included, and there is also a chapter on American efforts to promote stable government in Central America. But the sum total presents an exceptionally useful summary of our relations with the states which are treated. The query that this reviewer would raise as to this volume is as to whether the economic forces which operate upon foreign policy have here been given adequate emphasis. No doubt strategic considerations have often been uppermost in our Caribbean policy, but it is not possible on this account to ignore or minimize other considerations. Business interests certainly played a part in our early intervention in Nicaragua, yet they are not mentioned by Professor Munro. Their crucial importance in our Cuban diplomacy deserves to be more fully stressed. Even in Haiti they had a part which seems to deserve a little more consideration than is given to it. There is a happy mean between such excessive emphasis on the economic factors as appears in Scott Nearings Dollar diplomacy, on the one hand, and Professor Munros work, on the other. But no student of American diplomacy can afford to ignore this little volume.

Venetia Redeemed: Franco-Italian Relations 1864-1866. John W. Bush

B ECAUSE of the importance of Turkey and the Near East in the middle of the nineteenth century the diplomatic posts at Constantinople were usually filled by some of the best men in the foreign services of the gre-at powers of Europe. In 1860 and again in 1866 the French ambassadors at Constantinople (Thouvenel and Moustier) were promoted to the post of foreign minister in the French cabinet. Among these important envoys none stood out with so much prominence-or with so much controversy-as Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, the ambassador from Great Britain, who held this post for a total of twenty-one years (1824-29 and 1842-58).1 During all this long period of service he dedicated himself to the hopeless task of reforming the Turks and their Ottoman Empire. Undaunted by his lack of success he came to feel by his seniority and experience that he should rightly dominate the scene. He tried to dictate to the sultans on reforms, policies, and the choice of their ministers:2 he was constantly lec-