This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

The Russians call the longer river in Europe "Mother Volga" & view it as the lifeblood of their country. Marq de Villiers traveled in its 2,000-mile entirety to escape the chatter of the official Soviet media & to hear the emotional, unadorned voices of the real Russian people. His book combines genuine adventure with history & folklore as it offers a telling look at the paradoxical heart of modern Russia. It reveals the heart & soul of Russia with extraordinary sympathy, humor, & emotional richness. This book is a snapshot of a moment in time, a time of great anguish & wild hopefulness. Maps.

This is the most comprehensive study available of the popular theater that developed during the last decades of tsarist Russia. Swift examines the origins and significance of the new "people's theaters" that were created for the lower classes in St. Petersburg and Moscow between 1861 and 1917. His extensively researched study, full of anecdotes from the theater world of the day, shows how these people's theaters became a major arena in which the cultural contests of late imperial Russia were played out and how they contributed to the emergence of an urban consumer culture during this period of rapid social and political change. Swift illuminates many aspects of the story of these popular theaters—the cultural politics and aesthetic ambitions of theater directors and actors, state censorship politics and their role in shaping the theatrical repertoire, and the theater as a vehicle for social and political reform. He looks at roots of the theaters, discusses specific theaters and performances, and explores in particular how popular audiences responded to the plays.

In 1923, one of the greatest natural disasters ever recorded struck one of the most densely populated areas in the world. In Jishin, author Lee Riordan recreates this calamity, the Great Kanto Earthquake, providing both stirring adventure and touching romance. This book vividly describes the shaking and shuddering of the quake itself, during which thousands died, as much of the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama collapsed around their inhabitants. In the ensuing fires, many more perished as insatiable flames tore through the cities, destroying property and life. This gripping historical novel retells the story of the terrible quake that took over 140,000 lives. Jishin is also the story of Tatiana, the Russian countess, and Hugh, the American professor, who discover their love for one another against the backdrop of this destruction. The author built his tale on the recollections of Tatiana and Hugh, who were his parents, providing the book with an authenticity that gives it unusual poignancy and realism.