McGuinn Hall Room 231
Telephone: 617-552-3491
Email: gerald.easter@bc.edu
Russian Politics; Eastern Europe; Modern State; Ethnonationalism; Post-Communist Transitions
Gerald Easter teaches courses in Comparative Politics, with a regional focus on Russia and Eastern Europe. His research interests include the modern state, post-communist transitions, comparative political economy. Current research projects focus on comparative politics of policing and pre-modern politics.
He is the author of the following books: Reconstructing the State: Personal Networks and Elite Identity in Soviet Russia (Cambridge University Press, 2000), Shaping the Economic Space of Russia (ed., Ashgate, 2000), Capital, Coercion, and Post-Communist States (Cornell University Press, 2012), The Tsarina's Lost Treasure (Pegasus, 2020), and Last Stand of the Raven Clan: When Russia Went to War in America (Pegasus, forthcoming).
He joined the Political Science faculty at Boston College in 2000. He also taught at Georgetown University, Miami University (Ohio), European University in Saint Petersburg, Venice International University, and University of Rome at Tor Vergata. He is currently the Department Chair.
Last Stand of the Raven Clan: When Russian Went to War in America (Pegasus Books forthcoming)
The Tsarina's Lost Treasure: Catherine the Great, a Golden Age Masterpiece, and a Legendary Shipwreck (Pegasus Books: 2020)
Capital, Coercion and Post-Communist States (Cornell University Press, 2012)
*Winner–Davis Book Prize (ASEEES, 2013), best book in Social Sciences
*Winner–Hewett Book Prize (ASEEES, 2013), best book in Political Economy
Reconstructing the State: Personal Networks and Elite Identity in Soviet Russia (Cambridge University Press, 2000, Cambridge Series in Comparative Politics; translated into Russian, ROSSPEN 2010)
Shaping the Economic Space in Russia: Policy-making, Institutions, Actors, co-editor (Ashgate Publishers, 2000)
"Avoiding the Succession Trap: Leadership Change in Survivor Communist Regimes" in Postcommunist World in the 21st Century: How the Past Informs the Present (Rowman and Littlefied, 2022)
"Policing Protest in Russia" Communist and Postcommunist Studies (December 2021)
“State Finance in Post-Communist Poland: Building Capacity and Consent,” Public Administration Issues (no. 5; 2014).
“State Building and Tax Regimes: Critical Discussion,” Perspectives on Politics, vol., 11, no. 4 (December 2013)
“The Russian State in the Time of Putin,” Post-Soviet Affairs (September 2008)
“The Russian Tax Police,” Post-Soviet Affairs (December 2002)