{"product_id":"prince-george-e-lvov-9781498518673","title":"Prince George E. Lvov","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrince George E. Lvov was born in Dresden in 1861, the same year Tsar Alexander II emancipated the serfs and Russia began to move away from its static society of orders toward a more modern polity. He died in exile in Paris in 1925 with Russia once again in thralldom.  Prince L'vov dedicated his life to the improvement of the peasantry's condition and, like many other liberals, hoped to acculturate them to the norms and values of a civil society to attempt to overcome the backwardness of provincial life and ultimately to integrate them as citizens into a modern, vibrant nation. L'vov played an important role in Russia's first experiment with local self-government, oversaw the Great Migration of thousands of peasants to settle the wilderness of Siberia free from anyone's tutelage, organized aid to the tsar's peasant soldiers in the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars and helped to marshal the resources of the nation and coordinate industrial production during the latter conflict. It was\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The ultimate failure of liberalism in Russia,” the authors write in conclusion, “showed that the schism between Russia’s unacculturated peasant masses and educated society had not yet been overcome” (p. 233). Pessimists long have agreed. What is new in this fine work of scholarship is the suggestion that it was the liberal belief in civil society that helped accelerate its demise. * The Russian Review *\u003cbr\u003ePrince L’vov has long deserved more attention than he has gotten from historians. Thomas Earl Porter and Lawrence W. Lerner not only demonstrate his importance to Russian politics but also use his career to trace the tortured path of liberalism in the last years of Romanov rule. Their treatment of the moderate liberals who coalesced in the ‘Progressist’ faction after 1905 is equally interesting. -- Joshua Sanborn, Lafayette College\u003cbr\u003eThomas Earl Porter is the leading western historian of zemstvo liberalism and it is very useful to have his major writings brought together in this volume. They have been modified in order to create a continuous and partially updated narrative of the topic from 1861 to 1917. This has been achieved in part through incorporation of work in the same area by Lawrence W. Lerner. The main theme of the book is the link between 'small deeds' zemstvo (i.e. local government) activity and the extent of an independent civil society in Russia, for which zemstvo activists are seen as a barometer. The political activities of Russia's first post-tsarist prime minister, Prince George E. L'vov, also acts as unifying thread in what many scholars will find is a useful and insightful account of the topic. -- Christopher Read, University of Warwick\u003cbr\u003eThomas Earl Porter has written an important study that deepens our understanding of the politics of Russian liberalism and of local self-government as exemplified in the career of zemstvo activist George E. L'vov. -- Joseph Bradley, University of Tulsa\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChapter 1: The Zemstvo and Russian Liberalism Chapter 2: The “Small, victorious war” and the First Russian Revolution Chapter 3: Russia’s “Forgotten Decade”: The Zemstvo, Politics, and the Emergence of Civil Society Chapter 4: Russia’s Liberal Experiment Chapter 5: Russian Liberalism in Crisis Chapter 6: The Zemstvo and Liberalism in Russia’s Great War Chapter 7: The Failure of Russian Liberalism","brand":"Lexington Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51040667926871,"sku":"9781498518673","price":89.1,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781498518673.jpg?v=1750947451","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/prince-george-e-lvov-9781498518673","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}