Description: Alexander Herzen's Past and Thoughts was the most influential memoir in tsarist Russia. Passionate and insightful, Herzen watched both eagerly and warily as Europeans sought liberation via the modern nation-state. The first new English-language translation in a century, this annotated edition welcomes a new generation of readers.
Brief description: Kathleen F. Parthé is Professor Emerita of Russian at the University of Rochester. She is the author of the forthcoming volume Herzen's Letters: A Life in Opposition, as well as A Herzen Reader, Russian Village Prose, and, with James H. Billington, The Search for a New Russian National Identity.
Review Quotes: This magnificent exercise in self-writing founded the art of political witnessing for nineteenth-century Russia. At last, Herzen's acclaimed mega-text receives the critical English edition it deserves, expertly pruning out and eloquently filling in this world for today's readers.--Caryl Emerson, Princeton University