Soviet Adventures in the Land of the Capitalists

Lisa Kirschenbaum is an award-winning author whose research explores how individuals navigated the traumas of the twentieth century. Her books include Small Comrades: Revolutionizing Childhood in Soviet Russia, 1917–1932 (2000); The Legacy of the Siege of Leningrad, 1941–1995 (2006); and International Communism and the Spanish Civil War (2015).

• Introduction; Part I. Promised Lands: 1. Amerikanizm; 2. Alienism and radicalism; 3. Pernicious propaganda; 4. Two Russian gentlemen; Part II. New York and the Eastern States: 5. Extraordinary adventures in the land of the capitalists; 6. Photographing New York; 7. Dos; 8. The business of pleasure; 9. Black New York; 10. Complex hybrids; 11. Squaring the circle; 12. The apex of middlebrow culture; Part III. To the Pacific Ocean: 13. The road; 14. Frozen meat, salty butter, and other American delicacies; 15. The nationalities question; 16. A laboratory of anthropology; 17. New Mexico moderns; 18. Can you kid a kidder?; 19. The man in the red shirt; 20. Natural wonders and technical marvels; 21. The American dneprostroi; Part IV. The Golden State: 22. Irrational presuppositions; 23. The soviet colony in Carmel; 24. Friends of the soviet union; 25. Nothing could be more hollywoody; Part V. Journey's End: 26. Racism and democracy; 27. Anxious life; 28. Coda.

'This book breathes a mixed spirit of distant travel, cultural misperception, mortal danger, and satirical laughter. In 1935, two Soviet authors crossed the US in 1935, from New York to Carmel, and published an engaging but deceptive travelogue, One-Story America. In her striking reconstruction, Lisa A. Kirschenbaum combines both realities -- Soviet literature and American history – in one story, well-grounded in the archives but very entertaining to the contemporary reader.' Alexander Etkind, author of Russia Against Modernity