Product details
- ISBN 9781501752094
- Weight: 907g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 15 Nov 2020
- Publisher: Cornell University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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God, Tsar, and People brings together in one volume essays written over a period of fifty years, using a wide variety of evidence—texts, icons, architecture, and ritual—to reveal how early modern Russians (1450–1700) imagined their rapidly changing political world.
This volume presents a more nuanced picture of Russian political thought during the two centuries before Peter the Great came to power than is typically available. The state was expanding at a dizzying rate, and atop Russia's traditional political structure sat a ruler who supposedly reflected God's will. The problem facing Russians was that actual rulers seldom—or never—exhibited the required perfection. Daniel Rowland argues that this contradictory set of ideas was far less autocratic in both theory and practice than modern stereotypes would have us believe. In comparing and contrasting Russian history with that of Western European states, Rowland is also questioning the notion that Russia has always been, and always viewed itself as, an authoritarian country. God, Tsar, and People explores how the Russian state in this period kept its vast lands and diverse subjects united in a common view of a Christian polity, defending its long frontier against powerful enemies from the East and from the West.
Daniel Rowland taught in the History Department at the University of Kentucky from 1974 to 2012, and served as Director of the Gaines Center for the Humanities at UK. His books include Mannerism, Style and Mood and Architectures of Russian Identity, 1500-Present, (edited with James Cracraft.) He is a civic activist with a keen interest in historic preservation, and has sung in the Yale Whiffenpoofs and the Yale Russian Chorus, for which he served as assistant conductor.
