"This book is an important contribution to an understanding of the development of the Russian political tradition." -- Choice "... the fullest and most extensively researched narrative available in a western language on Peter III... " -- Slavic Review "... packed with information and convincing analysis... those familiar with eighteenth-century Russian history will find it most rewarding." -- Journal of Interdisciplinary History "A provocative reexamination of legislation and foreign policy under Peter III. Utilizing archival and published sources, Leonard shows this brief reign to have been a significant turning point in the evolution of economic and social policy. This work represents an important contribution to our understanding of eighteenth-century Russian monarchy." -- Richard Wortman "Leonard's convincing reassessment of the reign of Peter III squarely places it in the reformist tradition for which Catherine II claimed to have served as exclusive midwife. This is an impressive departure from received notions about the contrast between Peter's reign and that of his ambitious spouse."Â -- Michael F. Metcalf "... a well-drawn scholarly study... " -- Library Journal Portrayed as "a libertine, a halfwit, and a drunkard" by his wife, Catherine the Great, and the victim of a coup engineered by her, Peter III has received short shrift from historians. Carol S. Leonard challenges these interpretations and argues that his policies were firmly rooted in the traditions of Russian absolutism and the intellectual climate of his times.

This is a comprehensive interpretive history of Russia from the defeat of Napoleon to the eve of World War I. It is the first such work by a post-Soviet Russian scholar to appear in English. Drawing on the latest Russian and Western historical scholarship, Alexander Polunov examines the decay of the two central institutions of tsarist Russia: serfdom and autocracy. Polunov explains how the major social groups - the gentry, merchants, petty townspeople, peasants, and ethnic minorities - reacted to the Great Reforms, and why, despite the emergence of a civil society and capitalist institutions, a reformist, evolutionary path did not become an alternative to the Revolution of 1917. He provides detailed portraits of many tsarist bureaucrats and political reformers, complete with quotations from their writings, to explain how the principle of autocracy, although significantly weakened by the Great Reforms in mid-century, reasserted itself under the last two emperors. Polunov stresses the relevance, for Russians in the post-Soviet period, of issues that remained unresolved in the pre-Revolutionary period, such as the question of private property in land and the relationship between state regulation and private initiative in the economy.

The Seven Years? War was the world?s first global conflict, spanning five continents and the critical sea lanes that connected them. This book is the fullest account ever written of the French navy?s role in the hostilities. It is also the most complete survey of both phases of the war: the French and Indian War in North America (1754?60) and the Seven Years? War in Europe (1756?63), which are almost always treated independently. By considering both phases of the war from every angle, award-winning historian Jonathan R. Dull shows not only that the two conflicts are so interconnected that neither can be fully understood in isolation but also that traditional interpretations of the war are largely inaccurate. His work also reveals how the French navy, supposedly utterly crushed, could have figured so prominently in the War of American Independence only fifteen years later. ø A comprehensive work integrating diplomatic, naval, military, and political history, The French Navy and the Seven Years? War thoroughly explores the French perspective on the Seven Years? War. It also studies British diplomacy and war strategy as well as the roles played by the American colonies, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Portugal. As this history unfolds, it becomes clear that French policy was more consistent, logical, and successful than has previously been acknowledged, and that King Louis XV?s conduct of the war profoundly affected the outcome of America?s subsequent Revolutionary War.

The Seven Years War has been described as the first global conflict in history. It engulfed the Euro-Atlantic world from 1756 to 1763, and engaged the energies of European cabinets as never before. More than previous conflicts, the Seven Years War involved a variety of approaches to war, and taxed the military, material and moral resources of the powers involved. Drawing on a diverse array of archival, printed primary and secondary sources, The Seven Years War: A Transatlantic History covers the war’s origins, its conduct on land and at sea, its effects on logistics and finance, its interactions with domestic politics, its influence on international relations and its approach to peace. The book highlights the role of personality, alongside the enduring importance of communication, misperception and understanding. In so doing, it endeavours not merely to chronicle the war’s events, but to situate them in the context of mid-eighteenth century warfare, finance, politics and diplomacy. The Seven Years War will be of great interest to students of the European history, American history, maritime history, diplomatic and military history.

This book examines the history of reforms and major state interventions affecting Russian agriculture: the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the Stolypin reforms, the NEP, the Collectivization, Khrushchev reforms, and finally farm enterprise privatization in the early 1990s. It shows a pattern emerging from a political imperative in imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet regimes, and it describes how these reforms were justified in the name of the national interest during severe crises - rapid inflation, military defeat, mass strikes, rural unrest, and/or political turmoil. It looks at the consequences of adversity in the economic environment for rural behavior after reform and at long-run trends. It has chapters on property rights, rural organization, and technological change. It provides a new database for measuring agricultural productivity from 1861 to 1913 and updates these estimates to the present. This book is a study of the policies aimed at reorganizing rural production and their effectiveness in transforming institutions.

This bibliography, first published in 1957, provides citations to North American academic literature on Europe, Central Europe, the Balkans, the Baltic States and the former Soviet Union. Organised by discipline, it covers the arts, humanities, social sciences, life sciences and technology.

Neither a comprehensive 'life and times' nor a conventional biography, this is an engaging and accessible exploration of rulership and monarchial authority in eighteenth century Russia. Its purpose is to see how Catherine II of Russia conceived of her power and how it was represented to her subjects. Simon Dixon asks essential questions about Catherin'es life and reign, and offers new and stimulating arguments about the Englightenment, the power of the monarch in early modern Europe, and the much-debated role of the "great individual" in history.