Description
Book SynopsisPresenting a broad panorama of society and culture in the German lands and Russia from the Enlightenment to the breakthrough of modernity, this microhistory of one extraordinary family explores how the lives of individual people are entangled with the great forces of their age.
Trade ReviewThis is a remarkable book...The book has an almost encyclopedic character. Read this book. Cover to cover. Then give it to your colleagues, friends, students, postal carriers, and pets. Hopefully, someone among them will choose to emulate it. We need more books like this. * Paul W. Werth, The Russian Review *
The overall result of Martin's meticulous research and fascinating narrative is a highly original, compelling and kaleidoscopic picture of one extraordinary individual's journey through time and space in the context of the Age of Revolution. * Patrick O'Meara, Slavonic and East European Review *
Martin's account of Rosenstrauch's life nonetheless manages to weave together the [extant] sources into a riveting account of life across Central and Eastern Europe [in the] late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and will surely be an engaging read for scholars and students alike. * Catherine Gibson, Canadian-American Slavic Studies *
From the Holy Roman Empire to the Land of the Tsars is equally fascinating to read either as a novel à la Honoré de Balzac or as a manual in how to find the adequate source material to reconstruct the life story of an ordinary man. * Kristian Gerner, History: Reviews of New Books *
The magic of the book lies within its densely researched chapters, which I strongly recommend. Readers, like Rosenstrauch's theater audiences, will be much enlightened and even entertained. * Victoria Frede, H-Net Reviews *
