Robert Geraci presents an exceptionally original account of both
the politics and the lived experience of diversity in a society
whose ethnic complexity has long been downplayed. For centuries,
Russians have defined their country as both a multinational empire
and a homogeneous nation-state in the making, and have alternately
embraced and repudiated the East or Asia as fundamental to Russia's
identity.
The author argues that the city of Kazan, in the middle Volga
region, was the chief nineteenth-century site for mediating this
troubled and paradoxical relationship with the East, much as St.
Petersburg had served as Russia's window on Europe a century
earlier. He shows how Russians sought through science, religion,
pedagogy, and politics to understand and promote the Russification
of ethnic minorities in the East, as well as to define
themselves.
Vivid in narrative detail, meticulously argued, and peopled by
a colorful cast including missionaries, bishops, peasants, mullahs,
professors, teachers, students, linguists, orientalists,
archeologists, and state officials, Window on the East uses
previously untapped archival and published materials to describe
the creation (sometimes intentional, sometimes unintentional) of
intermediate and new forms of Russianness.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
