Review by Choice Review
Given the resurgence of hooliganism in Russia in the 1980s, this is a timely work. With this well-researched and interesting book readers have an opportunity to compare the economic, political, and social conditions in St. Petersburg at the beginning and end of the 20th century. Neuberger uses many illustrative anecdotes from the Boulevard press to provide a multifaceted definition of hooliganism. Her conception of hooliganism as social self-assertion, cultural conflict, and an expression of popular values is based on recent trends in the social history of crime, as exemplified in the works of Eric Hobsbawn, George Rud'e, and E.P. Thompson. Attention is shifted from the criminals to the societies that defined and regulated crime. Neuberger attributes much of the economic and social instability in pre-WW I St. Peterburg to rapid urbanization, with peasant migrants flooding the city. In the ensuing turmoil, people tried to assert new social identities, attempting to draw sharp distinctions between themselves and the groups they saw above and below them. As war clouds gathered, the challenge to Russian autocracy came from a society divided along social and cultural, as well as political lines. General, advanced undergraduate, and above. L. E. Oyos; Augustana College (SD)
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
