Bain, Robert Nisbet. First Romanovs, 1613-1725. [*]$3.50. Dutton.
An account of “the rise of socialism in Russia in its early days, coming down to the end of the reign of Peter the Great. So far as we know, the book takes new ground in that it is less a history of war and political convulsions than of the underlying conditions—social, racial, and moral as well as political—which give shape and form to the Muscovite civilization. Dramatic episodes and incidents have large place in the narrative.... There are several portraits and maps.”—Outlook.
“Mr. Nisbet Bain is too faithful a chronicler. He tells his story in such detail that we miss the broad features and lack some perspective of Russia’s relationship to the rest of Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.”
| + + — | Acad. 68: 799. Ag. 5, ‘05. 1010w. | |
| Am. Hist. R. 10: 940. Jl. ‘05. 40w. |
“But is perhaps unfair to carp at these minor inaccuracies (as they seem to us), and it is a more congenial task to praise this interesting book for the many pictures of old Russian life with which it abounds.”
| + + — | Ath. 1905, 2: 133. Jl. 29. 1770w. |
“It is seldom that a book combines in so high a degree the charm of imaginative writing with the graver interest of history.”
| + + | Lond. Times. 4: 246. Ag. 4, ‘05. 2040w. |
“‘The first Romanovs’ is a work which covers less ground than is traversed in the Scandinavian volume, and is marked not only by a greater fulness of detail, but by greater concentration of purpose. The present volume is in many respects the best he has given us.”
| + + + | Nation. 81: 151. Ag. 17, ‘05. 530w. | |
| N. Y. Times. 10: 345. My. 27, ‘05. 390w. |