The Odd Man Karakozov

“The Odd Man Karakozov is a subtle, challenging, and imaginative work. It deserves to be widely read not just by students of modern Russian history but by all those interested in modern political violence and its interpenetration with forms of subjectivity, art, and mass culture.”-Daniel Beer, Slavic Review “Verhoeven argues that modern terrorism began in nineteenth-century Russia … on April 4, 1866, [when] Dmitry Karakozov attempted to assassinate Czar Alexander II … Verhoeven’s thesis is comprehensive and thought provoking. She places the attempted assassination within the political context of social changes in Russia and other parts of Europe. She achieves this goal, incorporating the roles of Russian law, technological change, the emerging and competing media, and the advent of modernity. It is an outstanding analysis.”-Jonathan R. White, The Historian (Vol. 73, No. 2) “Verhoeven’s powers of observation are formidable, her insights startlingly original, and her narrative masterfully staged on the level of the scene, the sentence, and the word.”-Lynn Patyk, Russian Review “Verhoeven’s careful inspection of Karakozov’s failed assassination of Alexander II reads like an extremely well-researched detective story.”-Lonny Harrison, Slavic and East European Journal “The Odd Man Karakozov is concerned with the stories we tell each other to explain (away?) the rending of the political fabric. It is about what comes to be considered legitimate evidence and what does not, and about how concepts are formed to give meaning to narratives of the past.”-Lewis H. Siegelbaum, London Review of Books “Claudia Verhoeven is a masterful thinker, and The Odd Man Karakozov is a beautifully written, provocative, and important book that will be widely read. Verhoeven demonstrates that Karakozov’s attempt on the life of Alexander II inaugurated a new form of modern terrorist political violence-the murder of a crowned ruler, conceived as a form of action and communication intended to catalyze further revolutionary upheaval and the overthrow of the state.”-Kevin M. F. Platt, University of Pennyslvania

Claudia Verhoeven is Assistant Professor of History at Cornell University.