| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.5

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 278 words from this article are provided below; about 584 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Europe: Early Modern and Modern

Andrew L. Jenks. Russia in a Box: Art and Identity in an Age of Revolution. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. 2005. Pp. ix, 264. $38.00.
This book by Andrew L. Jenks tells the history of an object, the Palekh box, familiar to every tourist who has visited Russia. Black lacquer boxes ornamented with stylized fairytale scenes, these are—at their best—dazzling feats of craftsmanship, and even mass-produced imitations are redolent of legendary Russia. Despite their traditional appearance, however, Palekh boxes are modern in origin: they date from 1922, when two painters from the village of Palekh—long a center for icon painting—devised a secular product that would enable the village painters to remain in their studios and earn a living from their art, even as atheism became state policy under the Bolsheviks.	1
Jenks reveals the extent to which Palekh painters became "folk artists" by fiat and against their own wishes. First in the late imperial period, then under Soviet rule, they were conscripted to serve the national interest, and their efforts were monitored by powerful bureaucrats. The book begins with a useful account of nineteenth-century icon collecting that draws attention to the ways that early scholarship on icon painting served the agenda of state-sponsored nationalism so memorably described in Richard Wortman's Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy form Peter the Great to the Abdication of Nicholas II (1995). Under Alexander III and Nicholas II, Palekh painters were positioned as representatives of "true" peasant Russia, adhering to the old ways and loyal to the Orthodox faith that fused tsar with people in a single, sanctified whole.	. . .

There are about 584 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.