Joseph Bradley

Biography

Joseph Bradley's research has focused on the processes of social and cultural change and the interaction between the state and society in tsarist Russia. His first two books studied the strains on urban infrastructure posed by massive peasant immigration as well as government efforts to transform the Russian small arms industry. His third book examined the role of voluntary associations in the development of civil society in imperial Russia. Using some of Russia's most prominent learned societies as case studies, Bradley analyzed the ways in which educated Russians took initiative, formed a public, and broke down the sense of isolation inherent in authoritarian regimes. This study of associations allows us to examine afresh the relationship between state and society and to understand the process by which subjects were becoming citizens.

Research Interest

Modern Russian history, in particular the rise and fall of civil society in Russia and the Soviet Union, The processes of social and cultural change and the interaction between the state and society in tsarists Russia.