Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on extensive research in the archives of Russia and Uzbekistan, Douglas Northrop here reconstructs the turbulent history of a Soviet campaign that sought to end the seclusion of Muslim women. In Uzbekistan it focused above all on a massive...
Trade ReviewVeiled Empire contributes a lot to a more proper understanding of Soviet power in practice. It provides a remarkably deep insight into the inherent dynamics of Soviet power and gender relations in Uzbekistan during the first two decades of its existence.
* Nationalities Papers *
Veiled Empire displays a thorough familiarity with the newly opened Russian and Uzbek-language archives, theoretical sophistication, historiographic erudition, and attention to everyday life. It offers the mold-breaking analysis of cultural change in Central Asia.... It is an important book for those interested in Central Asia and Soviet imperialism, and in the clash of modernity and tradition, especially over gender. As Northrop reminds us, the veil has remained a potent point of contestation between secular states and Muslim cultures... and he provides a detailed, compelling, and thoughtful analysis of the hujum in what should become the authoritative work on the subject.
* Journal of The Historical Society *
Veiled Empire takes, as its central subject, an article of clothing: the head-to-toe covering worn by Uzbek women.... Douglas Northrop traces the multivalent meanings attached to this garment from various vantage points, including Bolshevik activists in both the center and the periphery, veiled and unveiled Uzbek women, Uzbek men, and the Muslim clerical establishment.... Northrop's book is among the most sophisticated contributions to a growing body of literature rooted in the non-Russian areas of the USSR.
* Canadian Journal of History *
Few doubt that Central Asia labors under a Soviet legacy, but precisely what that legacy is remains elusive. Northrop goes a long way toward reconstructing a key piece of it: the history of the Bolsheviks' effort to uproot the old and impose the new on the Muslim population of Uzbekistan between 1917 and 1941.
* Foreign Affairs *
Northrop shows how, in the Soviet case, there simply was not enough modernization for modernity. The din of factory machinery, sirens and barking loudspeakers, which Soviet artists celebrated in the 1920s, did not reach the quiet, dusty streets of Uzbekistan.... Northrop finds a colonial empire obscuring imperialist policies under the cloak of decolonization.
* Times Literary Supplement *
Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Embodying Uzbekistan2. Hujum, 19273. Bolshevik Blinders4. The Chust Affair5. Subaltern Voices6. With Friends Like These7. Crimes of Daily Life8. The Limits of Law9. Stalin's Central Asia?Conclusion
