Lord Novgorod the Great: Essays in the History and Culture of a Medieval City-State is one of several major works Henrik Birnbaum produced as part of his extensive research in this area, including a second book with Slavica in 1996 (Novgorod in Focus, still in print as of this writing). Two other books appeared with other publishers, so this topic manifestly constituted one of the major touchstones of his long and eminent research career.