Europe's Steppe Frontier, 1500-1800: A Study of the Eastward Movement in Europe

Description

In Europe’s Steppe Frontier, acclaimed historian William H. McNeill analyzes the process whereby the thinly occupied grasslands of southeastern Europe were incorporated into the bodies-social of three great empires: the Ottoman, the Austrian, and the Russian. McNeill benefits from a New World detachment from the bitter nationality quarrels of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century which inspired but also blinded most of the historians of the region. Moreover, the unique institutional adjustments southeastern Europeans made to the frontier challenge cast indirect light upon the peculiarities of the North American frontier experience. Preface Contents 1. Introduction 2. Ottoman Advance to 1570 3. Time of Troubles, 1570-1650 4. The Victory of Bureaucratic Empire 1650-1740 5. The Closure of the Frontier 1740-1800 Bibliographical Essay Index