Description: On the eve of World War I, Russia, not known as a nation of joiners, had thousands of voluntary associations. Joseph Bradley examines the crucial role of voluntary associations in the development of civil society in Russia from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century.
Brief description: Joseph Bradley is Professor of History at the University of Tulsa.
Review Quotes: This splendid book is lucidly written, shrewdly organized, well researched and forcefully argued. Bradley's contention that voluntary organizations played an indispensable role in the formation of Russian civil society is sound. His exploration of the relationship between voluntary associations and Russia's central government is both intelligent and richly suggestive for historians of Russian political culture. This is a first-rate book that will secure wide readership in Russian imperial history and modern European history.--Gary M. Hamburg, Claremont McKenna College