Copyright (c) 2013 University of Iowa All rights reserved. http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs Recent documents in Department of History Publications en-us Tue, 21 May 2013 15:32:10 PDT 3600 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/23 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/23 Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:43:51 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/22 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/22 Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:43:50 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/21 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/21 Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:28:08 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/20 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/20 Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:23:49 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/19 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/19 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:34:24 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/18 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/18 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:34:24 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/16 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/16 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:34:22 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/17 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/17 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:34:22 PDT The later seventeenth century was an era of unprecedented social mobility in the upper reaches of Muscovite society. Prior to the reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich, the boyar duma had been the preserve of a small set of pedigreed families. Aleksei, however, altered the traditional duma recruitment policy in the 1650s and began to promote undistinguished "new men" into the duma. Despite the claims of some historians, the new men were not radicals. It is true that many of them had made their way to the top by virtue of their service and skill, and not due to any hereditary right to elite ranks or offices. They were the beneficiaries of a very mild drift toward meritocratic appointment. But the new men did not necessarily share the principles standing behind the policy that brought them into the heights of Muscovite society. They had been born and bred in a society that took for granted the existence of a class of men who were the natural born leaders of the realm. The new men recognized that though they were among the elite, they were not of it in a genealogical sense. It likely never occurred to them to alter the basic principles of the old status system. The parvenus wanted to become members of the hereditary elite, not to destroy it. Evidence of widespread genealogical falsification by the new men is prima facie indication of this desire and the mentality that stood behind it.

]]> Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/15 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/15 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:34:21 PDT What has been called the early modern military revolution may be described most simply as the replacement of small cavalry forces by huge gunpowder infantry armies. The revolution was a diffusionary process with a relatively well-understood chronology and geography. The innovations at its core began in northern Italy in the later fifteenth century and spread throughout central, northern, and eastern Europe in the three centuries that followed. Seen in this way, it was a unique and unitary phenomenon. Thus we speak of the military revolution, an episode in world history, instead of several different revolutions in the constituent parts of Europe. Nonetheless, the course and impact of the revolution were different in the regions it eventually affected.

]]> Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/14 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/14 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:09:24 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/13 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/13 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:09:23 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/12 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/12 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:09:22 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/11 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/11 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:09:22 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/10 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/10 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:25:49 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/9 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/9 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:25:48 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/8 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/8 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:25:48 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/7 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/7 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:25:47 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/6 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/6 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:25:46 PDT This essay concerns a common rite of conviviality among the seventeenth-century Muscovite elite — the presentation of dependent female family members (wives, married daughters, servants) to guests during banquets.1 This ritual stands at the nexus of private and public life in Muscovy, for while it occurred within the confines of the home it was designed to offer strangers an idealized representation of domestic relations. The first section below points out that indigenous Muscovite sources for private life, banquets, and the family-presentation ritual are problematic, and then goes on to argue that foreign accounts provide good (though neglected) information on these topics. The second section continues this line of argument by substantiating the credibility of the foreign descriptions of the family-presentation ritual. The third section surveys the descriptions themselves and variations among them. The final section offers an interpretation of the symbolism of the family-presentation ritual and its meaning for the Muscovite elite.

]]> Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/5 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/5 Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:43:34 PDT Marshall Poe http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/4 http://ir.uiowa.edu/history_pubs/4 Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:43:33 PDT Marshall Poe