Christian Raffensperger is the Kenneth E. Wray Chair in the Humanities and Professor and Chair of the History Department at Wittenberg University, and an Associate of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. He is the author of Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus´ in the Medieval World, 988–1146; Ties of Kinship: Genealogy and Dynastic Marriage in Kyivan Rus´; The Kingdom of Rus´; and Conflict, Bargaining, and Kinship Networks in Medieval Eastern Europe.

A daring and original work of scholarship that challenges the traditional view of Kievan Rus'. Historians of both Rus' and Western Europe have generally accepted the idea that Orthodox Rus' was isolated from the rest of Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Yet the unfortunate separation of medieval history and culture into Eastern and Western blocs has obscured the political reality of early Kiev. In a skillful and effective reinterpretation that draws upon a variety of methodologies, from numismatics and sigillography to genealogy, Raffensperger demonstrates that Rus' was not disconnected from the West, but was instead part and parcel of a broader Europe.

Christian Raffensperger is the Kenneth E. Wray Chair in the Humanities and Professor and Chair of the History Department at Wittenberg University, and an Associate of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. He is the author of Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus´ in the Medieval World, 988–1146; Ties of Kinship: Genealogy and Dynastic Marriage in Kyivan Rus´; The Kingdom of Rus´; and Conflict, Bargaining, and Kinship Networks in Medieval Eastern Europe.

A daring and original work of scholarship that challenges the traditional view of Kievan Rus'. Historians of both Rus' and Western Europe have generally accepted the idea that Orthodox Rus' was isolated from the rest of Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Yet the unfortunate separation of medieval history and culture into Eastern and Western blocs has obscured the political reality of early Kiev. In a skillful and effective reinterpretation that draws upon a variety of methodologies, from numismatics and sigillography to genealogy, Raffensperger demonstrates that Rus' was not disconnected from the West, but was instead part and parcel of a broader Europe.

Christian Raffensperger is the Kenneth E. Wray Chair in the Humanities and Professor and Chair of the History Department at Wittenberg University, and an Associate of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. He is the author of Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus´ in the Medieval World, 988–1146; Ties of Kinship: Genealogy and Dynastic Marriage in Kyivan Rus´; The Kingdom of Rus´; and Conflict, Bargaining, and Kinship Networks in Medieval Eastern Europe.

A daring and original work of scholarship that challenges the traditional view of Kievan Rus'. Historians of both Rus' and Western Europe have generally accepted the idea that Orthodox Rus' was isolated from the rest of Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Yet the unfortunate separation of medieval history and culture into Eastern and Western blocs has obscured the political reality of early Kiev. In a skillful and effective reinterpretation that draws upon a variety of methodologies, from numismatics and sigillography to genealogy, Raffensperger demonstrates that Rus' was not disconnected from the West, but was instead part and parcel of a broader Europe.