By Honor Bound

Nancy Shields Kollmann is William H. Bonsall Professor of History at Stanford University. She is the author of Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Russia and Kinship and Politics: The Making of the Muscovite Political System.

• 1. Cultural Concepts of Honor2. Patriarchy in Practice3. The Praxis of Honor4. Honor in the Elite5. Strategies of Integration in an Autocracy6. Toward the Absolutist StateEpilogue: The Endurance of Honor

Based on extensive archival research, Kollmann's book is a groundbreaking study of early modern Russia. Reflecting a thorough familiarity with social science theory, the author argues in support of a new periodization of Russian history on the basis of her findings and for something of a 'convergence' in the Western and Russian historiography of relations between state and society. Required reading for all graduate students and specialists alike.(Choice) The codification of 'honor,' Nancy Kollmann tells us in her impressive book, coincided with the expansion of the Muscovite state between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. The incorporation of new territories, the burgeoning size of the Muscovite court, and the necessity of integrating newly conquered provincial elites into the political order necessitated codes that simultaneously co-opted these elites into the political order and differentiated them from the older Muscovite serving men at court.(Slavic and East European Journal) This book challenges many accepted tenets, including the type of state erected in Muscovy, the basic periodization of Russian history, and the emergence of new identities and mentalities. It deserves to be read widely.(American Historical Review)