Europe's Steppe Frontier, 1500–1800

Download or read book Europe's Steppe Frontier, 1500–1800 written by William H. McNeill and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-09-23 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.