Start Reading Lord And Peasant In Russia From The Ninth To The Nineteenth Century Devised By Jerome Blum Released As Bound Copy

standard overview of this subject, i, e. serfs and serfdom in Russia, since its publication, A surprisingly readable book nonetheless but then again I am highly interested in labor and agricultural history in short, how folks have made a living and the conditions under which they make a living.

It's also essential reading, I suspect, for those of us who are interested in the political history of the Russian Empire during the second half of theth century and into the first quarter of theth.
So I would recommend this book to anyone who plans to read Franco Venturi's Roots of Revolution, among many other books of this topic.
I would recommend it even to readers who want to understand Russian literary history of the same period, e, g. Gogol's Dead Souls is incomprehensible without background knowledge of the type that Blum's book provides,

. I've just finished Gogol's Dead Souls again and I am struck by the number of terms and references related to serfs and serfdom that appear in the novel and that the author does not explain, but that Blum treats in detail.
It is difficult to find a more encompassing study of this subject in modern day historiography, This book was assigned reading for the twosemester Russian history course taken with Greg Guroff at Grinnell College during theacademic year.
Until pulling it off the shelf a few minutes ago I hadn't been certain that I'd read it then, but the notes written inside indicate that I had.
My particular interest in this course had been to study nineteenth century and early twentieth century

progressive groups in Russia, groups such as the Social Revolutionaries, about which I had already learned something before enrolling in the class.
The many readings covering other areas of Russian history didn't come into much play for my major papers, To understand Russian history without understanding serfdomthe peasantlord relationship that shaped Russia for centuriesis impossible, Still, before Jerome Blum, no scholar had tackled the subject in depth, Monumental in scope and pathbreaking in its analysis, Lord and Peasant in Russia garnered immediate attention upon its publication in, a year that also marked the one hundredth anniversary of the emancipation of the Russian serfs.
As one reviewer remarked, "No better book on the subject exists it is indispensable to the serious student of Russia,



On a scale befitting Russiaa sixth of the earth's land massBlum's book explored in almost seven hundred pages the legal and social evolution of its predominantly agricultural population, the types of peasant status, and the multifaceted nature of the masterpeasant relationship.
More important, Blum was the first to articulate the necessity of placing serfs front and center in the study of Russian history.
As a reviewer for the Economist wrote, "Mr, Blum has written not just a monograph on landlords and peasants in Russia but a history of Russia from a particular point of view.
There is no denying that the history of a country where, . . a barepercent of the population was urban can with impunity be written in terms of landlords and peasants, " In, it was awarded the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize of the American Historical Association it remains a cornerstone of Russian historiography, Jerome Blumwas an american economic historian specialising in the history of agriculture, Blum served in the field artillery of the US army during WWII leaving the service with the rank of Captain receiving his PhD infrom Johns Hopkins University.
Taught history at Princeton University fromuntil his retirement as Professor Emeritus, .