Description
Book SynopsisCo-winner of the Central Eurasian Studies Society''s prize for best book in History and the Humanities in 2022 and 2023, and winner of the The Joseph Rothschild Prize in Nationalism and Ethnic Studies of the Association for the Study of Nationalities
Intermarriage and the Friendship of Peoples examines the racialization of identities and its impact on mixed couples and families in Soviet Central Asia. In marked contrast to its Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union celebrated mixed marriages among its diverse ethnic groups as a sign of the unbreakable friendship of peoples and the imminent emergence of a single Soviet people. Yet the official Soviet view of ethnic nationality became increasingly primordial and even racialized in the USSR''s final decades. In this context, Adrienne Edgar argues, mixed families and individuals found it impossible to transcend ethnicity, fully embrace their complex identities, and become simply Soviet.
Looking back o
Trade Review
Adrienne Edgar's Intermarriage and the Friendship of Peoples is an outstanding study of the evolution of intermarriage practices in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan across the Soviet era and beyond.
* New Books Network *
Adrienne Edgar's Intermarriage and the Friendship of Peoples explores an intriguing paradox: how and why did the Soviet multinational state espouse the concept of a singular, equal Soviet people, and yet simultaneously identify and promote ethnic and national identity categories?
* Asian Affairs Journal *
Edgar's research is in many ways original and innovative, and it thus opens a wide new field of research in Soviet studies that others might want to expand.It is rare to write this in a review, but I am thrilled by reading Adrienne Edgar's book on interethnic marriage.
* H/Soz/Kult *
Edgar convincingly reconstructs how intermarriage in the Soviet Union benefitted from its particularities
* Europe Asia Studies *
It is rare to write this in a review, but I am thrilled by reading Adrienne Edgar's book on interethnic marriage
* Florin *
One of the book's strengths is that Edgar takes a multigenerational view
* Asian Affairs *
Edgar is more concerned with the messiness of lives lived than with theory, which is a great strength of the book
* Keller *
Edgar's portrayal of the experiences of race, racism, and logics and practices of rationalization in the late- Soviet period makes several important contributions.
* Russian Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Nationality, Race, and Mixed Marriage in the Soviet Union
1. Intermarriage and Soviet Social Science
2. Falling in Love across Ethnic Lines
3. Scenes from Happy (and Not So Happy) Mixed Marriages
4. Intermarriage and the "Eastern Woman"
5. Dilemmas of Identity and Belonging
6. Naming Mixed Children
7. Mixed Families and the Russian Language
8. Intermarriage after the Soviet Collapse
Conclusion: Remembering Soviet Internationalism
