God, Tsar, and People

God, Tsar, and People brings together in one volume essays written over a period of fifty years, using a wide variety of evidence—texts, icons, architecture, and ritual—to reveal how early modern Russians (1450–1700) imagined their rapidly changing political world.

This volume presents a more nuanced picture of Russian political thought during the two centuries before Peter the Great came to power than is typically available. The state was expanding at a dizzying rate, and atop Russia's traditional political structure sat a ruler who supposedly reflected God's will. The problem facing Russians was that actual rulers seldom—or never—exhibited the required perfection. Daniel Rowland argues that this contradictory set of ideas was far less autocratic in both theory and practice than modern stereotypes would have us believe. In comparing and contrasting Russian history with that of Western European states, Rowland is also questioning the notion that Russia has always been, and always viewed itself as, an authoritarian country. God, Tsar, and People explores how the Russian state in this period kept its vast lands and diverse subjects united in a common view of a Christian polity, defending its long frontier against powerful enemies from the East and from the West.

Daniel Rowland taught in the History Department at the University of Kentucky from 1974 to 2012, and served as Director of the Gaines Center for the Humanities at UK. His books include Mannerism, Style and Mood and Architectures of Russian Identity, 1500-Present, (edited with James Cracraft.) He is a civic activist with a keen interest in historic preservation, and has sung in the Yale Whiffenpoofs and the Yale Russian Chorus, for which he served as assistant conductor.

Rowland's examination of sources as diverse as saint's lives, throne room frescos, icons, architecture and ritual is a tour de force

Over his career Daniel Rowland has given us a complex, source-based, new paradigm of Muscovite political thought. Throughout these essays his basic humanity is on display, particularly in generous recognition of fellow scholars. But do not let these warm acknowledgments lull you into missing how original, how erudite, and how path-breaking his work is.

Christine D. Worobec, Northern Illinois University, author of Possessed and Peasant Russia:

Daniel Rowland is a major interpreter of Muscovite political history. An early proponent of the importance of cultural history, he continues to demonstrate the ways in which Orthodoxy permeates all of early modern Russian culture and the creative ways in which Muscovite texts and visual representations repeatedly used biblical references to make arguments that need to be decoded in order to understand Muscovy's political culture. And Rowland is the master decoder.