Time of Anarchy: Indigenous Power and the Crisis of Colonialism in Early America by Matthew Kruer

cussion. The author, for example, includes only a brief discussion of collectivization (71–74). Collectivization was the single most important event in Soviet Russia’s agrarian history, but based on the author’s abbreviated discussion, the reader would be mystified about what collectivization was and why it was undertaken. Further, why is the role of the state at times active and other times passive in introducing or allowing foreign foods to influence the Russian diet? Why was the impact of foreign food so transformative to the Russian diet in the post-Soviet period, a diet that in chapter 1 the author depicted as inherently tied to Russian culture and identity? The book is intended as an introduction, but brevity is not always a virtue. In sum, the author has achieved a Herculean task in tackling the history of Russian food. The introductory reader will benefit from the wealth of material and scope of her coverage. At the same time, she raises as many questions as she answers.