Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom (Belknap Press)
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.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.