Open Letters

Alison Rowley is a professor in the Department of History at Concordia University

• IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: More than "Wish You Were Here" 1. The Market for Picture Postcards in Russia2. The Landscapes of Russian Imperialism3. Gender and Celebrity Culture via the Lens of the Picture Postcard: The Case of Vera Kholodnaia, the "Queen of the Russian Screen"4. Bodies on Display: Romantic and Erotic Postcards in Fin-de-Siècle Russia5. Monarchy and the Mundane: Picture Postcards and Images of the Romanovs6. Beyond Patriotic Discourse: Picture Postcards and Russia’s First World War7. Picture Postcards and the Russian Revolution, 1905–1922Epilogue: Picture Postcards across the Revolutionary DivideNotes BibliographyIndex

"Entering the world of Russian postcards allows one to savor something of the times in which they circulated and to sample an occasional message from one person to another… This book will be warmly welcomed by historians and students interested in Russia."- Jeffrey Brooks (The Journal of Modern History) "Intriguing and beautifully produced."- Alice Nakhimovsky (Slavic Review ) "This is an important and fascinating glimpse into the complementary construction of private lives and public assumption in late imperial Russia."- Louise McReynolds (Revolutionary Russia ) "Open Letters is undoubtedly a valuable addition to the historiography of Russian popular culture of early twentieth century, which goes some way towards confirming the postcard as a significant cultural artifact both with and of history."- Andy Byford (Slavonic & East European Review ) "What Alison Rowley in Open Letters does well is provide a welcome overview of the postcard industry and introduce a new visual source to Russian scholars as well as ways to interpret these images. For that we are all in her debt."- Christine Ruane (The Russian Review )