Imperial Russia: New Histories for the Empire (Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies)

Kinship Politics/autocratic Politics: A Reconsideration Of Early-eighteenth-century Political Culture / Valerie A. Kivelson -- The Idea Of Autocracy Among Eighteenth-century Russian Historians / Cynthia Hyla Whittaker -- The Russian Imperial Family As Symbol / Richard Wortman -- Collecting The Fatherland: Early-nineteenth-century Proposals For A Russian National Museum / Kevin Tyner Thomas -- Science, Empire, And Nationality: Ethnography In The Russian Geographical Society, 1845-1855 / Nathaniel Knight -- Lines Of Uncertainty: The Frontiers Of The Northern Caucasus / Thomas M. Barrett -- An Empire Of Peasants: Empire-building, Interethnic Interaction, And Ethnic Stereotyping In The Rural World Of The Russian Empire, 1800-1850s / Willard Sunderland -- The Serf Economy, The Peasant Family And The Social Order / Steven L. Hoch -- Institutionalizing Piety: The Church And Popular Religion, 1750-1850 / Gregory L. Freeze -- An Eighteenth-century Russian Merchant Family In Prosperity And Decline / David L. Ransel -- Freemasonry And The Public In Eighteenth-century Russia / Douglas Smith -- Constructing The Meaning Of Suicide: The Russian Press In The Age Of The Great Reforms / Irina Paperno. Edited By Jane Burbank And David L. Ransel. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. "On the basis of the work presented here, one can say that the future of American scholarship on imperial Russia is in good hands." American Historial Review " . . . innovative and substantive research . . . " The Russian Review "Anyone wishing to understand the 'state of the field' in Imperial Russian history would do well to start with this collection." Theodore W. Weeks, H-Net Reviews "The essays are impressive in terms of research conceptualization, and analysis." Slavic Review Presenting the results of new research and fresh approaches, the historians whose work is highlighted here seek to extend new thinking about the way imperial Russian history is studied and taught. Populating their essays are a varied lot of ordinary Russians of the 18th and 19th centuries, from a luxury-loving merchant and his extended family to reform-minded clerics and soldiers on the frontier. In contrast to much of traditional historical writing on Imperial Russia, which focused heavily on the causes of its demise, the contributors to this volume investigate the people and institutions that kept Imperial Russia functioning over a long period of time. WHILE MANY SCHOLARS of the Petrine era have sensibly resolved either to avoid the hackneyed debate over continuity or change altogether or to adopt a measured middle ground that allows elements of each, the problem still shapes discussions of the eighteenth century, often in unacknowledged ways.