{"product_id":"europes-laboratory-climate-and-health-in-eighteenth-century-russia-9781501783920","title":"Europe's Laboratory: Climate and Health in Eighteenth-Century Russia","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eEurope's Laboratory \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eis a history of eighteenth-century naturalists and physicians who were involved in the creation of a classification system for the people of the Russian Empire.\u003c\/b\u003e These Enlightened scholars traveled through Russia describing its people, landscape, and customs. In an era when climate was seen as a significant factor affecting health and bodies, these men wondered: How did the Russians, a \"cold\" people--phlegmatic or melancholic, according to humoral theory--manage an empire? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRussia's empire, as Matthew P. Romaniello shows, contradicted the medical knowledge reflecting centuries of experimentation and practice. In solving this riddle, naturalists and physicians would unlock the secret of Russia's success and create a typology of imperial bodies, a guide toward managing the empire's diversity, to prepare Russia for greater successes in the nineteenth century. Rather than an underpopulated region of unambitious people, eighteenth-century Russia was a dynamic empire that mastered skills to support settler colonialism in climates unfamiliar to other Europeans.\u003ci\u003e Europe's Laboratory\u003c\/i\u003e makes a significant contribution to the most understudied era of Russian history while engaging the broader, global debates on the formation of race theory in colonial contexts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eMatthew P. Romaniello is Chair and Professor of History at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. He is the author of\u003ci\u003e The Elusive Empire\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eEnterprising Empires\u003c\/i\u003e and spent a decade as the editor of the\u003ci\u003e Journal of World History\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Northern Illinois University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51834631225618,"sku":"9781501783920","price":60.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_5eec38fe-9512-4f7c-9a79-973a27d1135a.jpg?v=1767096041","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/europes-laboratory-climate-and-health-in-eighteenth-century-russia-9781501783920","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}