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Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 1:45 PM In response to Yale Richmond's suggestion of Nicholas P. Vakar, The Taproot of Soviet Society (Harper & Brothers, 1962) and Tibor Szamuely, The Russian Tradition (McGraw-Hill, 1974) as introductions to Russian culture: With all due respect for Mr. Richmond (whose postings on H-Russia I much admire), both of these books are rather tendentious, Cold-Warish treatments of the "Russian soul" and such. Here is an example from Vakar: "Historians who have written that the tyranny of the tsars conditioned the nation to accept the tyranny of the Communists have missed the fact that Russian habits of obedience have been the cause, not the result, of political autocracy." While there may be something to this thesis, I think it's really a species of "blaming the victim." Szamuely is, if I recall, much worse, bordering on Russophobic. For all its faults, Billington's "Icon and the Axe" is even-handed. All the Best, MP -- Marshall Poe Department of History Robinson Hall Harvard University Cambridge, MA 02138 (617) 496-3699 mpoe@fas.harvard.edu www.russianhistory.org www.slavica.com/kritika/ ---------- >From: Elizabeth Morrow Clark <eclark@mail.wtamu.edu> >To: H-RUSSIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU >Subject: Re: Books on Russian Culture >Date: Mon, Feb 12, 2001, 11:18 AM > > From: Yale Richmond [mailto:yalerich@erols.com] > Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2001 7:27 AM > > In response to Jennifer Hedda's request for books for an introductory course > on Russian culture at a community college, I would recommend, in addition to > my own From Nyet to Da: Understanding the Russians (Intercultural Press, > 1996), the following: > > Nicholas P. Vakar, The Taproot of Soviet Society (Harper & Brothers, 1962), > an analysis of Soviet society and its roots in the Russian peasant past, by > a former professor of Russian civilization at Wheaton College, MA. > > Tibor Szamuely, The Russian Tradition (McGraw-Hill, 1974), how history has > shaped the Russians, by a Hungarian-born scholar who lived and studied in > both the Soviet Union and England. > > As much as I admire James Billington's The Ikon and the Axe, I believe it is > too detailed for community college students and tells them more than they > need to know in an introductory course. Szamuely and Vakar, by contrast, are > very readable and ideal for an introductory course, although they are long > out of print. > > Yale Richmond > Washington, DC
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