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kochella's review against another edition
2.0
I'm not quite sure how one makes the history of Russia boring, but this book manages it.
This gets the job done, but there are much more enjoyable texts out there. Riasanovsky's "A History of Russia," for example.
This gets the job done, but there are much more enjoyable texts out there. Riasanovsky's "A History of Russia," for example.
ramis139's review against another edition
4.0
It is a very profound and academic work. As noted and critisized in other reviews, indeed, the book mostly focus on socio-economic issues, but it is not the dates and numbers but these deep social processes that define the country's history. I like this focus and consider it reasonable for such a profound book, but if you're looking for some entertaining reading, the book indeed might not be for you.
honeyblood's review against another edition
I don't really think I'm knowledgable enough about other texts in Russian history to really identify if this was definitively better or worse, so I'm not going to rate it, but yay finishing a book for class.
honeyedblood's review against another edition
I don't really think I'm knowledgable enough about other texts in Russian history to really identify if this was definitively better or worse, so I'm not going to rate it, but yay finishing a book for class.
poirotketchup's review against another edition
3.0
The narrow focus on political history was frustrating at times - for example, the effects of the Crimean War on public opinion is discussed at length, but the description of the war itself is so paltry that I had no idea who Russia was fighting against in the war, and could only infer that she lost.
The broad temporal sweep (400 pages for 500 years) seems like it'd be aimed at newcomers to the country's history, but I found I had to supplement the text with Wikipedia on nearly every page simply to understand the terms and historical figures used without introduction. People who don't need that sort of help might be bored by the overview.
Still, the subject matter is fascinating; despite several different authors writing for different eras, the link between historical causation still stands out. The consistent failure to divide land in an intelligent manner, the incompetency of the ruling class and the repeated way that reform always seemed to make things worse could be described as the major themes.
The broad temporal sweep (400 pages for 500 years) seems like it'd be aimed at newcomers to the country's history, but I found I had to supplement the text with Wikipedia on nearly every page simply to understand the terms and historical figures used without introduction. People who don't need that sort of help might be bored by the overview.
Still, the subject matter is fascinating; despite several different authors writing for different eras, the link between historical causation still stands out. The consistent failure to divide land in an intelligent manner, the incompetency of the ruling class and the repeated way that reform always seemed to make things worse could be described as the major themes.
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