Preface Introduction: The Origin and Consolidation of Unfree Labor PART 1:THE MASTERS AND THEIR BONDSMEN 1. Labor Management 2. Planters, Pomeshchiki, and Paternalism 3. Ideals and Ideology PART 2: THE BONDSMEN AND THEIR MASTERS 4. Community and Culture 5. Patterns of Resistance 6. Protest, Unity, and Disunity Epilogue: The Crisis of Unfree Labor Bibliographical Note Notes Index
Kolchin's stupendous research effort and sensitive reading of the evidence have resulted in an original, perceptive, and significant book. Admirably proving the enormous value of comparative study, Kolchin's analysis provides fresh insights into the nature of unfree labor in general and slavery and serfdom in particular. And despite its sophistication and its length, the book is a good read; it is clear, cogent, and free of academic jargon. This is a splendid study. -- Harold D. Woodman, Purdue University Kolchin's book is a work of staggering erudition as regards the literature and sources concerning both Russian serfdom and American slavery. His comparative study offers significant insight into both systems of bondage. There is nothing remotely comparable in the literature in Russian or English, and Kolchin's writing is always lucid. -- Daniel Field, Russian Research Center, Harvard University
Peter Kolchin is Henry Clay Reed Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Delaware and the author of First Freedom: The Response of Alabama's Blacks to Emancipation and Reconstruction.
Unfree Labor will stand the test of time much as Jerome Blum's Lord and Peasant in Russia and Kenneth Stampp's The Peculiar Institution have for serfdom and slavery respectively. In this major comparative study Kolchin analyzes the numerous similarities, e.g., serious labor shortages in two land rich areas on the peripheries of a dynamic, changing Europe, and dissimilarities, e.g., a primarily economic system (Russia) versus a comprehensive way of life (America). He demonstrates a keen knowledge of the sources as he examines the organization and dynamics of these two systems, and the responses they evoked from the slaves and serfs, over three centuries. The final product is a skillful blend of scholarship and readability that no library should ignore. It is a paradigm of what comparative history at its best can achieve. Mark R. Yerburgh, Trinity Coll. Lib., Burlington, Vt.
Comparative history is a tricky business and Unfree Labor
succeeds where many previous ventures into this genre have failed.
-- Richard S. Dunn * Times Literary Supplement *
A learned and sophisticated book in the tradition of high
scholarship, as well as a book written to be read and enjoyed.
Those who share a taste for comparative history will be taken with
the author's spirit of play, his readiness to ask 'what if,' and
his zest for experiment and discovery. -- C. Vann Woodward * New
York Review of Books *
In its balance of interpretation, clarity of exposition, and depth
and breadth of research, the book is exceptional. Moreover, it is a
model of comparative analysis, displaying, as too few such studies
have ever done, the complexities and the value of historical
comparison. -- Carl N. Degler * Journal of Social History *
Students of servile labor systems, slave and serf, and of American
and Russian history, have needed, and have known they needed, a
book like this for a long time... This is indeed a splendid and
indispensable book... Required reading for American historians. --
Eugene D. Genovese * Journal of Economic History *
Kolchin's book is a work of staggering erudition as regards the
literature and sources concerning both Russian serfdom and American
slavery. His comparative study offers significant insight into both
systems of bondage. There is nothing remotely comparable in the
literature in Russian or English, and Kolchin's writing is always
lucid. -- Daniel Field, Russian Research Center, Harvard
University
Kolchin's stupendous research effort and sensitive reading of the
evidence have resulted in an original, perceptive, and significant
book. Admirably proving the enormous value of comparative study,
Kolchin's analysis provides fresh insights into the nature of
unfree labor in general and slavery and serfdom in particular. And
despite its sophistication and its length, the book is a good read;
it is clear, cogent, and free of academic jargon. This is a
splendid study. -- Harold D. Woodman, Purdue University
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