Terror and Greatness: Ivan and Peter as Russian Myths
by Kevin M. F. Platt
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0801448131
- ISBN 13
- 9780801448133
- Seller
-
Dover, Kent, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011. In this ambitious book, Kevin M. F. Platt focuses on a cruel paradox central to Russian history: that the price of progress has so often been the traumatic suffering of society at the hands of the state. The reigns of Ivan IV (the Terrible) and Peter the Great are the most vivid exemplars of this phenomenon in the pre-Soviet period. Both rulers have been alternately lionized for great achievements and despised for the extraordinary violence of their reigns. In many accounts, the balance of praise and condemnation remains unresolved; often the violence is simply repressed. Platt explores historical and cultural representations of the two rulers from the early nineteenth century to the present, as they shaped and served the changing dictates of Russian political life. Throughout, he shows how past representations exerted pressure on subsequent attempts to evaluate these liminal figures. In ever-changing and often counterposed treatments of the two, Russians have debated the relationship between greatness and terror in Russian political practice, while wrestling with the fact that the nations collective selfhood has seemingly been forged only through shared, often self-inflicted trauma. Platt investigates the work of all the major historians, from Karamzin to the present, who wrote on Ivan and Peter. Yet he casts his net widely, and "historians" of the two tsars include poets, novelists, composers, and painters, giants of the opera stage, Party hacks, filmmakers, and Stalin himself. To this day the contradictory legacies of Ivan and Peter burden any attempt to come to terms with the nature of political power-past, present, future-in Russia.. 1st Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Allen Williams Books (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 160036
- Title
- Terror and Greatness: Ivan and Peter as Russian Myths
- Author
- Kevin M. F. Platt
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Edition
- 1st Edition
- ISBN 10
- 0801448131
- ISBN 13
- 9780801448133
- Publisher
- Cornell University Press
- Place of Publication
- Ithaca
- Date Published
- 2011
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾" - 9&f
Terms of Sale
Allen Williams Books
We carry over 57,000 titles so we will almost invariably be unable to let you know straight away availability and shipping costs without checking.
If you feel you must phone please remember the time difference.
Calls from within the UK are more than welcome.
Please only call between 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday. PLEASE DO NOT PHONE OUTSIDE THESE HOURS, EVEN BOOK DEALERS LIKE TO TAKE SOME TIME OFF.
Strictly mail order, no callers please.
UK cheques made out to Allen Williams are welcome. Payment would be needed prior to despatch.
Overseas customers payment would be by credit card or International Money Order prior to despatch, we do not accept foreign cheques.
Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Switch, Delta and Solo accepted.
Multiple copies may be available.
UK orders will be sent 1st Class or International by airmail unless otherwise specified.
Any book can be returned if not correctly described.
About the Seller
Allen Williams Books
Biblio member since 2006
Dover, Kent
About Allen Williams Books
We sell a mix of used and new books