{"product_id":"2026100007508-secondhand-moral-idealists-bureaucracy-and-catherine-the-great","title":"Moral Idealists, Bureaucracy, And Catherine The Great","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: 1st ed.,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Very good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Worn\/faded, no tears\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the intersection of Enlightenment idealism and imperial autocracy stands one of history's most fascinating paradoxes: a coterie of Russian moral philosophers who sought to reform a vast bureaucratic empire under the watchful eye of Catherine the Great. Walter J. Gleason's Moral Idealists, Bureaucracy, and Catherine the Great chronicles the intellectual and political struggles of eighteenth-century Russian reformers who believed that moral philosophy could tame the machinery of imperial governance, presenting a richly detailed account of how Enlightenment thought collided with the realities of autocratic power in Romanov Russia.\n\nGleason argues with scholarly precision that the tension between idealistic governance theory and entrenched bureaucratic practice was not merely a Russian phenomenon, but a defining crisis of the Age of Reason — one that Catherine herself navigated with calculated ambiguity. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, his analysis illuminates the contradictions of an empress who corresponded with Voltaire yet ruled with an iron hand, and the reformers who believed, perhaps fatally, that reason alone could reshape an empire. For anyone captivated by the collision of ideas and power, this work raises a question that still resonates: can moral idealism ever truly conquer the bureaucratic state?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49130996465883,"sku":"2026100007508-SECONDHAND","price":30.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/4ff2e552-3300-4315-b5e2-2b5172c98a3a.png?v=1786594021","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100007508-secondhand-moral-idealists-bureaucracy-and-catherine-the-great","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}