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A Russian Merchant´s Tale: The Life and Adventures of Ivan Alekseevich Tolchënov, Based on His Diary
David L. Ransel
€ 33.55
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Description for A Russian Merchant´s Tale: The Life and Adventures of Ivan Alekseevich Tolchënov, Based on His Diary
Paperback. Based on the diary of an 18th-century Russian provincial merchant, this book presents a portrait of Russia's little-known commercial class. It offers insights into the social history of imperial Russia. Series: Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian & East European Studies. Num Pages: 352 pages, 15 b&w photos, 5 maps. BIC Classification: 1DVUA; GTB. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 234 x 155 x 24. Weight in Grams: 590.
Based on the rare diary of an 18th-century Russian provincial merchant, A Russian Merchant's Tale presents a revealing portrait of Russia's little-known commercial class. By recording his daily contacts with a wide array of individuals from lords to laborers for more than 40 years, Ivan Alekseevich Tolchënov opened a window onto the education, work, birth, death, marriage, business, civic, holiday, and religious practices of a social group about which little has been known. Using the tools of microhistory to interpret the diary, David L. Ransel vividly brings to life Tolchënov's self-construction, his relations with family and society, and his entire world of aspirations, achievements, and failures. Challenging prevailing stereotypes of Russian merchants as tradition-bound and narrow-minded, A Russian Merchant's Tale offers important new insights into the social history of imperial Russia.
Product Details
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2008
Publisher
Indiana University Press United States
Number of pages
352
Condition
New
Series
Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian & East European Studies
Number of Pages
352
Place of Publication
Bloomington, IN, United States
ISBN
9780253220202
SKU
V9780253220202
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-50
About David L. Ransel
David L. Ransel is Robert F. Byrnes Professor of History and Director of the Russian and East European Institute at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is author of Village Mothers: Three Generations of Change in Russia and Tataria (IUP, 2005) and editor (with Jane Burbank) of Imperial Russia: New Histories for the Empire (IUP, 1998).
Reviews for A Russian Merchant´s Tale: The Life and Adventures of Ivan Alekseevich Tolchënov, Based on His Diary
Ransel's account provides a vivid analysis of educated merchants in provincial Russia . . . His skill in blending narative and analysis and the elegance of his prose make the book a pleasure to read.84.1, Spring 2010
Business History Review
. . . Ivan Tolchenov's journal, and David Ransel's scrupulous work with it, have produced an insightful portrait of one Russian merchant and of a 'lost' Russian middle class.Vol. 32.3 Summer 2009
Lina Bernstein
BIOGRAPHY
Russian merchants have never enjoyed a good press. Since the middle of the nineteenth century the spectre of the samodur - the crude grasping domestic tyrant who reigned supreme over 'a dark kingdom' . . . - has exerted a stubborn hold over popular perceptons of the merchant class. . . . The past few decades, however, have witnessed a shift away from these old habits, and David Ransel's book is an important addition to a robust field of research devoted to these middle orders. Oct. 23, 2009
Douglas Smith
TLS - Times Literary Supplement
Tolchënov's Journal has found a fluid interpreter in David L. Ransel, whose patient, knowing analysis illuminates the many gems the diary has to offer . . . . [This book] portrays with unique breadth the middling, provincial world of Russia's widely scattered townsfolk . . . . Ransel's close study will bear repeated reading and help historians visualize the world of eighteenth-century Russia across many dimensions.Vol. 115 Feb. 2010
John Randolph
University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign
Like an intrepid detective, Ransel grasps these slender clues, and, armed with an inexhaustible inquisitiveness and an imaginative modus operandi, he sets out to provide a detailed and vivid reconstruction of the life of this merchant. . . . The end result is a lively narrative with few antecedents in Russian historiography. . . . This is a book deserving of a wide and appreciative readership. As source study, methodology, argument, and narrative A Merchant's Tale offers rich rewards.Spring 2010
Slavic Review
Tolchnov's diary, available in a Russian edition, is a rich source. Thanks to this fertile encounter between the energetic chronicler and the gifted historian, we have here an edition that reads like a novel while offering a course in Russian history.
Canadian — American Slavic Studies
David Ransel brought . . . his extensive studies . . . [of] Russian merchants to a dignified conclusion . . . [T]his book in the future will inspire many . . . research questions.
H-Soz-Kult
. . . [the author] used Tolchenov's detailed diary to produce a revealing book about a segment of Russian society that had been largely ignored by historians . . . .May 3, 2009
Herald Times
. . . beautifully written . . . a first-rate scholarly work that challenges our perception of a non-elite person's daily life in the provincial Russia of the second half of the eighteenth century . . . . The result is microhistory at its best. Ransel manages to bring a life, turned nothing but dry text, back to life again. . . . a ground-breaking and thought-provoking contribution to the historiography of eighteenth-century Russia.Vol. 68.4 October 2009
Olga E. Glagoleva
Toronto, Canada
Ransel has long since established his bona fides as a specialist in Russian social history. Here, he deploys his expertise to good effect in deciphering the intricacies of the Tolchënov diaries. Vol. 82.4, December 2010
Journal of Modern History
Ransel's account serves as an excellent introduction to the complicated development of Russian society in an era of Enlightenment and change. Volume 73, No. 1 2011
HISTORIAN
[F]rom the thin threads of Tolchenov's sketchy diary jottings, Ransel has managed to weave a broad tapestry of a Russian merchant's life. This is expertly done by judicious use of the year-end summaries and supporting archival material.
Slavonic and East European Review
Business History Review
. . . Ivan Tolchenov's journal, and David Ransel's scrupulous work with it, have produced an insightful portrait of one Russian merchant and of a 'lost' Russian middle class.Vol. 32.3 Summer 2009
Lina Bernstein
BIOGRAPHY
Russian merchants have never enjoyed a good press. Since the middle of the nineteenth century the spectre of the samodur - the crude grasping domestic tyrant who reigned supreme over 'a dark kingdom' . . . - has exerted a stubborn hold over popular perceptons of the merchant class. . . . The past few decades, however, have witnessed a shift away from these old habits, and David Ransel's book is an important addition to a robust field of research devoted to these middle orders. Oct. 23, 2009
Douglas Smith
TLS - Times Literary Supplement
Tolchënov's Journal has found a fluid interpreter in David L. Ransel, whose patient, knowing analysis illuminates the many gems the diary has to offer . . . . [This book] portrays with unique breadth the middling, provincial world of Russia's widely scattered townsfolk . . . . Ransel's close study will bear repeated reading and help historians visualize the world of eighteenth-century Russia across many dimensions.Vol. 115 Feb. 2010
John Randolph
University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign
Like an intrepid detective, Ransel grasps these slender clues, and, armed with an inexhaustible inquisitiveness and an imaginative modus operandi, he sets out to provide a detailed and vivid reconstruction of the life of this merchant. . . . The end result is a lively narrative with few antecedents in Russian historiography. . . . This is a book deserving of a wide and appreciative readership. As source study, methodology, argument, and narrative A Merchant's Tale offers rich rewards.Spring 2010
Slavic Review
Tolchnov's diary, available in a Russian edition, is a rich source. Thanks to this fertile encounter between the energetic chronicler and the gifted historian, we have here an edition that reads like a novel while offering a course in Russian history.
Canadian — American Slavic Studies
David Ransel brought . . . his extensive studies . . . [of] Russian merchants to a dignified conclusion . . . [T]his book in the future will inspire many . . . research questions.
H-Soz-Kult
. . . [the author] used Tolchenov's detailed diary to produce a revealing book about a segment of Russian society that had been largely ignored by historians . . . .May 3, 2009
Herald Times
. . . beautifully written . . . a first-rate scholarly work that challenges our perception of a non-elite person's daily life in the provincial Russia of the second half of the eighteenth century . . . . The result is microhistory at its best. Ransel manages to bring a life, turned nothing but dry text, back to life again. . . . a ground-breaking and thought-provoking contribution to the historiography of eighteenth-century Russia.Vol. 68.4 October 2009
Olga E. Glagoleva
Toronto, Canada
Ransel has long since established his bona fides as a specialist in Russian social history. Here, he deploys his expertise to good effect in deciphering the intricacies of the Tolchënov diaries. Vol. 82.4, December 2010
Journal of Modern History
Ransel's account serves as an excellent introduction to the complicated development of Russian society in an era of Enlightenment and change. Volume 73, No. 1 2011
HISTORIAN
[F]rom the thin threads of Tolchenov's sketchy diary jottings, Ransel has managed to weave a broad tapestry of a Russian merchant's life. This is expertly done by judicious use of the year-end summaries and supporting archival material.
Slavonic and East European Review