Books by Janet M. Hartley

A rich and fascinating exploration of the Volga-the first to fully reveal its vital place in Russian history

Larger in area than the United States and Europe combined, Siberia is a land of extremes, not merely in terms of climate and expanse, but in the many kinds of lives its population has led over the course of four centuries. Janet M. Hartley explores the history of this vast Russian wasteland-whose very name is a common euphemism for remote bleakness and exile-through the lives of the people who settled there, either willingly, desperately, or as prisoners condemned to exile or forced labor in mines or the gulag. From the Cossack adventurers' first incursions into "e;Sibir"e; in the late sixteenth century to the exiled criminals and political prisoners of the Soviet era to present-day impoverished Russians and entrepreneurs seeking opportunities in the oil-rich north, Hartley's comprehensive history offers a vibrant, profoundly human account of Siberia's development. One of the world's most inhospitable regions is humanized through personal narratives and colorful case studies as ordinary-and extraordinary-everyday life in "e;the nothingness"e; is presented in rich and fascinating detail.

Charles Whitworth (1675-1725) served as a career-diplomat in northern, central and western Europe in the first quarter of the 18th century. This study of his life reconstructs his career and is largely based on his official and private correspondence and papers.

A study of the Russian Empire at the peak of its military power and success (1762-1825), this important book examines how a country with none of the obvious trappings of modernization was able to significantly expand its territory.