Life In Russia Under Catherine The Great
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Good
Imperial Russia at its most magnificent and contradictory comes alive in Miriam Kochan's Life in Russia Under Catherine the Great, a richly detailed portrait of an empire balanced between Enlightenment ideals and feudal tradition. Set against the glittering backdrop of 18th-century St. Petersburg and the vast Russian hinterland, the work chronicles the daily existence of all social strata — from the jewel-encrusted nobility of Catherine's celebrated court to the serfs bound to the frozen soil of the steppe — illuminating the profound tensions that defined one of history's most dramatic reigns. Kochan presents her subject with the precision of a scholar and the narrative warmth of a storyteller, drawing on contemporary accounts, travellers' diaries, and diplomatic correspondence to reconstruct a world of breathtaking opulence and stark inequality. The work stands as a significant contribution to social history, arguing implicitly that Catherine's Russia was not merely the sum of one woman's remarkable ambitions, but a civilisation caught between two worlds — and the question of which world ultimately prevailed will leave the reader hungry to discover more.
Author: Miriam Kochan
Format: Hardback
Published: 1969, Batsford
Genre: European history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Good
Imperial Russia at its most magnificent and contradictory comes alive in Miriam Kochan's Life in Russia Under Catherine the Great, a richly detailed portrait of an empire balanced between Enlightenment ideals and feudal tradition. Set against the glittering backdrop of 18th-century St. Petersburg and the vast Russian hinterland, the work chronicles the daily existence of all social strata — from the jewel-encrusted nobility of Catherine's celebrated court to the serfs bound to the frozen soil of the steppe — illuminating the profound tensions that defined one of history's most dramatic reigns. Kochan presents her subject with the precision of a scholar and the narrative warmth of a storyteller, drawing on contemporary accounts, travellers' diaries, and diplomatic correspondence to reconstruct a world of breathtaking opulence and stark inequality. The work stands as a significant contribution to social history, arguing implicitly that Catherine's Russia was not merely the sum of one woman's remarkable ambitions, but a civilisation caught between two worlds — and the question of which world ultimately prevailed will leave the reader hungry to discover more.