The Romanovs

In this reprint from 2008, the late Hughes, who was professor of history at the U. of London, UK, relates the history of the Romanovs in Russia from 1613 to the fall of the dynasty in 1917. She describes each of the rulers from Michael to Nicholas II, including Alexis, Catherine I, Anna, Elizabeth, and Alexander III, focusing on the rulers and dynastic issues and not the wider Romanov clan, and discussing both their successes and their failures and the strategies that allowed them to rule Russia for over 300 years. She includes discussion of the political and cultural role of Romanov women, the relationship between the ruling house and the ruling class, the rulers' attitudes toward the Russian people, the relationship between Russia and the major Western powers, and the balance between national identity and assimilation from abroad. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

LindseyHughes was an internationally renowned authority on 17th and18th century Russian history, in particular on the age of Peter theGreat. Aswell as teaching at London University's School of Slavonic and EastEuropean Studies, where she was a professor and head of the historydepartment, she wrote prolifically and was a valued member of aninfluential cohort of scholars brought together in theEighteenth-Century Russia Study Group founded in 1968 byAnthony Cross.