Winner of the Heldt Prize of the Association for Women in Slavic Studies

"Of the precious few western historical works on late imperial Russian law, this one is by all odds the best...[T]his work achieves two noteworthy accomplishments: it places Russia in the context of nineteenth-century European civil law reform and it allows for a better understanding of the Soviet civil law system which followed."--Slavic Review

"Compelling....Drawing on materials ranging from archival sources to law codes, collections of laws, and judicial decisions, Wagner's detailed analysis offers the reader valuable insights into yet another area of late Imperial Russian history, when a contentious struggle pitted an emerging elite against the forces of the traditional state order."--CHOICE

"William Wagner has written a highly detailed analysis of the debates over the revision of family and property law from the eve of the Great Reforms to 1917...(raising) issues that will concern any historian of the period."--The Russian Review

"Wagner's detailed and richly documented examination of the legal debates and decisions in civil courts concerning marriage and property after the judicial reforms of 1864 is a welcome addition to the Western historiography of the development of a civil society in the late Imperial Russia."--American Historical Review

"This work gives the reader excellent insights into the overall discussions of change in late-nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century Russia..."--HISTORY

"[A] magnificent work of description...[A] fine example of 'gender history'..."--Law and History Review