Imperial Boundaries: Cossack Communities And Empire-Building In The Age Of Peter The Great Paperback

Brian J. Boeck

Imperial Boundaries is a study of imperial expansion and local transformation on Russia's Don Steppe frontier during the age of Peter the Great. Brian Boeck connects the rivalry of the Russian and Ottoman empires in the northern Black Sea basin to the social history of the Don Cossacks, who were transformed from an open, democratic, multiethnic, male fraternity dedicated to frontier raiding into a closed, ethnic community devoted to defending and advancing the boundaries of the Russian state. He shows how by promoting border patrol, migration control, bureaucratic regulation of cross-border contacts and deportation of dissidents, Peter I destroyed the world of the old steppe and created a new imperial Cossack order in its place. In examining this transformation, Imperial Boundaries addresses key historical issues of imperial expansion, the delegitimization of non-state violence, the construction of borders, and the encroaching boundaries of state authority in the lives of local communities.

1107695015

9781107695016

English

Cambridge University Press

30-Jan-14

270

Brian J. Boeck is Assistant Professor in the History Department at DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois.

The book not only makes an important contribution to our understanding of Russia as empire, but also tells us much about a particular region and its population, especially about the shift of social identities in early modern Russia.' Guido Hausmann, H-HistGeog "...well written and soundly argued..." -Choice "The author is to be congratulated. This engaginly written, broadly researched, and analytically rigourous study should be of interest to historians of Russia as well as to scholars interested in the transition of early modern frontier societies into the modern age." -Peter Holquist, Journal of Interdisciplinary History "This is an important and stimulating book." -Carol Stevens, The Russian Review "Boeck has produced an accessible narrative of not only Russian empire building but also more generally the collapse of an unique borderland, which he has situated in a thoughtful discussion of relevant theory and historiography." -Matthew P. Romaniello, The Historian "...a very competent book on a very narrow subject: a history of the Don Cossack Host at the time of Peter the Great." -Michael Khodarkovsky, American Historical Review "The book not only makes an important contribution to our understanding of Russia as empire, but also tells us much about a particular region and its population, especially about the shift of social identities in early modern Russia." -H-HistGeog "In a well-researched and well-written monograph, Brian Boeck offers a new interpretation of the Cossacks on the steppe frontier over the period in which Muscovy was transformed into the Russian Empire." -David Moon, Journal of Modern History "...a final merit of the book is that it whets the reader's appetite for the work of Bruce Menning, Shane O'Rourke and Peter Holquist on the history of Don Cossacks in later periods." -David Saunders, European History Quarterly