From the Old Regime to the New

Abstract

The review is dedicated to the book of Alexander M. Martin “From the Holy Roman Empire to the Land of the Tsars: One Family’s Odyssey, 1768–1870”, which tells the story of the life, family, and work of the German Johann Ambrosius Rosenstrauch, a subject of the Russian Empire. Methodologically, this study can be classified as microhistory: Rosenstrauch’s life is that of a “normal exception”, not involved, however, in breaking the law, as is often the case with the heroes of other micro-historical studies. The author also touches the topic of memory; he shows the role that heirs play in preserving the legacy of their ancestors, and how they perceive and process the memory of them. Alexander M. Martin has done a tremendous job not only in constructing Rosenstrauch’s life, but also in fitting it into a variety of social, cultural, and economic contexts.