ebooks Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany 2 Volume Set: The Franco-Prussian War of 1813 (Cambridge Military Histories) by Michael V. Leggiere in History

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Russian rural history has long been based on a 'Peasant Myth'; originating with nineteenth-century Romantics and still accepted by many historians today. In this book; Tracy Dennison shows how Russian society looked from below; and finds nothing like the collective; redistributive and market-averse behaviour often attributed to Russian peasants. On the contrary; the Russian rural population was as integrated into regional and even national markets as many of its west European counterparts. Serfdom was a loose garment that enabled different landlords to shape economic institutions; especially property rights; in widely diverse ways. Highly coercive and backward regimes on some landlords' estates existed side-by-side with surprisingly liberal approximations to a rule of law. This book paints a vivid and colourful picture of the everyday reality of rural Russia before the 1861 abolition of serfdom.