""Experiencing Russia's Civil War is a comprehensive political, social, economic, and cultural history of the key Volga city of Saratov during the Russian Civil War. Its great virtue lies in its extraordinary breadth and depth. It is difficult to exaggerate its significance to historiography on the civil war era in Russia and to informed thinking about the Soviet experience generally."—Alexander Rabinowitch, author of "The Bolsheviks Come to Power and "Prelude to Revolution

"This work will be the first of its kind on the Russian civil war. It is based on prodigious research using archival sources that were utterly off limits to scholars before 1990, from a city that was itself closed to foreigners. It is the first to take seriously the application of the 'cultural turn' to the history of the Russian revolution. Last but no less important, it will be the first comprehensive local study of the civil war. Raleigh has shown the rest of us how it should be done."—Diane P. Koenker, author of "Moscow Workers and the 1917 Revolution and coauthor of "Strikes and Revolution in Russia, 1917 [Edit review] [Delete review]