{"product_id":"unfree-labor-american-slavery-and-russian-serfdom-belknap-press","title":"Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom (Belknap Press)","description":"\u003cp\u003eTwo massive systems of unfree labor arose  a world apart from each other  in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The American enslavement of blacks and the Russian subjection of serfs flourished in different ways and varying degrees until they were legally abolished in the mid-nineteenth century. Historian Peter Kolchin compares and contrasts the two systems over time in this magisterial book  which clarifies the organization  structure  and dynamics of both social entities  highlighting their basic similarities while pointing out important differences discernible only in comparative perspective.  These differences involved both the masters and the bondsmen. The independence and resident mentality of American slaveholders facilitated the emergence of a vigorous crusade to defend slavery from outside attack  whereas an absentee orientation and dependence on the central government rendered serfholders unable successfully to defend serfdom. Russian serfs  who generally lived on larger holdings than American slaves and faced less immediate interference in their everyday lives  found it easier to assert their communal autonomy but showed relatively little solidarity with peasants outside their own villages; American slaves  by contrast  were both more individualistic and more able to identify with all other blacks  both slave and free.  Kolchin has discovered apparently universal features in masterbondsman relations  a central focus of his study  but he also shows their basic differences as he compares slave and serf life and chronicles patterns of resistance. If the masters had the upper hand  the slaves and serfs played major roles in shaping  and setting limits to  their own bondage.  This truly unprecedented comparative work will fascinate historians  sociologists  and all social scientists  particularly those with an interest in comparative history and studies in slavery.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44952274534453,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674920988","price":49.48,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674920989.jpg?v=1770157164","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/unfree-labor-american-slavery-and-russian-serfdom-belknap-press","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}