Cambridge Publisher Releases New Collection: Information and Empire
How did systems of information shape Russia’s transformation into the largest empire on earth?
Free to read, this new title casts a fresh look at Russia’s communication networks in the early modern period. On the anniversary of the Russian Revolution, when the country’s history and communication practices are being interrogated as never before, Information and Empire: Mechanisms of Communication in Russia, 1600-1850 brings together internationally-renowned scholars who take us back to the origins of Russia’s systems of information. They unveil the role played by State, Church and, increasingly, civic society in the country’s modes and patterns of communication.
From the mid-sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century Russia was transformed from a moderate-sized, land-locked principality into the largest empire on earth. Communication networks shaped and reflected this extraordinary change: the postal service and the gathering and circulation of news are examined alongside the growth of a bureaucratic apparatus that informed the government about its country and its people. The inscription of space is considered from the point of view of mapping and the changing public ‘graphosphere’ of signs and monuments. More than a series of institutional histories, this book is concerned with the way Russia discovered itself, envisioned itself and represented itself to its people.
Innovative and scholarly, the collection breaks new ground in its approach to communication and information as a field of study in Russia. More broadly, it is an accessible contribution to pre-modern information studies, taking as its basis a country whose history often serves to challenge habitual Western models of development. It is important reading not only for specialists in Russian Studies, but also for students and non-Russianists who are interested in the history of information and communications.
Information and Empire is a radically accessible resource, free to read, download and reuse under a Creative Commons Open Access license here. The editors and authors of Information and Empire chose to publish in Open Access so that their work could reach the largest number of readers possible. Information and Empire is also available in interactive e-book and inexpensive paperback and hardback editions.
Open Book Publishers is a non-profit organization and the leading Open Access publisher of monographs in the UK. We are committed to making high-quality research freely available to readers around the world. This dedication to changing the nature of the traditional academic book continues with Information and Empire.
Information and Empire: Mechanisms of Communication in Russia, 1600-1850
Edited by Simon Franklin and Katherine Bowers (eds.)
Publication date: November 2017
ISBN Paperback: 9781783743735
Available in paperback (£24.95), hardback (£34.95) and ebook editions (£5.99); the book is also available to read and download for free, in its entirety, from the publisher’s website: www.openbookpublishers.com
For more information contact: general@openbookpublishers.com
