2012

Honorable Mention: Katerina Clark
Title: Moscow, the Fourth Rome: Stalinism, Cosmopolitanism, and the Evolution of Soviet Culture, 1931-1941  (Harvard University Press)

A brilliant, revisionist study of what had seemed an isolated Moscow in an era when deep connections to European thinkers and activists, as this book argues, actually contextualized the redesign and symbolic recreation of Moscow in the 1930s. This is powerfully theorized work of literary history, informed by rich knowledge of social science, architecture, film, the visual arts, and theater and presenting splendid readings of material as varied as cultural theory, building ensembles, and show trials. Moscow, the Fourth Rome redefines the emergence of Soviet culture in broader and much more compelling terms.

Honorable Mention: Gail Kligman and Katherine Verdery
Title: Peasants under Siege: The Collectivization of Romanian Agriculture, 1949-1962  (Princeton University Press)

An impressive account of state formation and technology transfer in communism, which will be exemplary for studies of other countries and will provide a strong, new foundation for all work on modern Romania. Distinguished by its mastery of a vast array of evidence, and equally by its patient treatment of hugely complex topics, from the formation of cadres to kinship networks, Peasants under Siege is also deeply humane in showing how new subjectivities emerged under collectivization.

Winner: Catherine Evtuhov