This eagerly awaited study of Russia under Alexander I, Nicholas I and Alexander II -- the Russia of War and Peace and Anna Karenina -- brings the series near to completion. David Saunders examines Russia's failure to adapt to the era of reform and democracy ushered into the rest of Europe by the French Revolution. Why, despite so much effort, did it fail? This is a superb book, both as a portrait of an age and as a piece of sustained historical analysis.

D. Saunders

1.The enigmatic Tsar, his friends, and his inheritance. 2. Russia and the Napoleonic wars; constitutions, congresses and classes under Alexander I. 3. The Decembrist Movement. 4. The administrative and social policy of Nicholas I. 5. The emergence of the Russian intelligentsia; the Russian bear. 6. The politics of emancipation; in the wake of emancipation. 7. Russia and Europe; populism.