Jo-Ann Mort's book is a collection of articles about the changes that have been taking place in the new AFL-CIO. Under the leadership of John Sweeny and Linda Chevez-Thompson, the AFL-CIO has been reivigorated and has taken on many new project, such as "America Needs a Raise," a call for all Americans, Union or not to have a living wage and a rising standard of living. In prior years organized labor just tried to hold onto what it had, and saw its influence with the democratic party decline. But today's movement has focused on recruiting new members, and building membership in America's unions to secure a voice for all Americans. Many of the articles, such as "Part-time America Won't Work," which is about the 1997 UPS-Teamster's strike against the transitionto a part-time work force, are important to most people. Prior to 1995, it would have seen likely that organized labor would slip away. But today, with the new AFL-CIO's energy and issues that address the economic plight most American, seem to have momentum. Who would have thought of IBM employees trying to unionize fifteen years ago?

I have always been a huge fan of labor. I believe in the cause of the average guy. I am a proud pro-labor Democrat and a proud supporter of organized labor. I am a proud believer in the ideals behind the New Deal-Fair Deal-New Frontier-Great Society liberalism. I believe that government's job is to protect the weakest among us. Social and moral justice is a must. Thus, when I saw this book, I knew I would love it - and I did! This has labor's pro-worker political, economic and social agenda outlined clearly and concisely. Here you see what the working person in the U.S. needs - decent wages, good health care, education, training, a decent job atmosphere and a society which values families. Here you see the right wing's awful attack on labor through a cut buying power for the Minimum Wage, attacks on Medicare and Social Security and attacks on the right to collective bargaining. The fact is that, despite its often mentioned corruption from the leadership, labor remains one of the most credible sources for average political participation. Nowhere else can one who is honestly concerned about families find an organization or source which allows such participation politically and socially. Other groups - on left and right - do not allow this. The trial lawyers, health insurance groups, doctors associations, business groups and right wing anti-labor groups are all greedy bandits. The religious right manipulates persons and scares them. The civil rights organizations are the closest thing we have to labor groups. Yet, labor wins for labor is a group with an agenda which spans all parts of America. After all, who does not benefit from the right to join and strike with a legal union, universal health care, social investments in day care, education, jobs and training and family leave? Who does not win when the least among us get fed, clothed, housed and get a dignified job? The agenda outlined here is what we need in this right wing era. The U.S. desparately needs a health care system in which all have care. We need a rejuvinated public education system. We need fair labor laws. We need fair civil rights and equal protection laws. We need day care, family leave and a fair Minimum Wage. Full employment is still necessary. This book is great. For anybody who wants to find out where this country should be headed, this one is a true winner!

Her writing is like nothing else "without boarders of fences," the inocences of childhood and the sorrow, boringness of life comes a live like the sun at dawn through her words which blow like the wind across her pages.

Magical!!

This is a book that expands the mind of what to expect from literature.

The book was given to me by my writing teacher who I respected greatly. She rarely makes gifts of books; yet I soon understood why she selected it. It is a quiet book with no pretense of art or gallery; for this reason it contains great art and a wonderful gallery of images. To be sure my even reviewing it stikes one with a terrible mistrust--as even now I mistrust what I say. It is the lyrical authority of T.T. which makes me happy to praise it, and I do. Its tastes in subject and angle are supurb. (Thank-you to Lucia Berlin for the present of T.T.)

This is the story of Hugh Koehler, scion of the St. Louis brewing family, and reputed illegitimate son of the crown prince of Austria. (Remember Mayerling.)
He grew up in society, attended Harvard, and then the US Naval Academy. Upon graduation he served in China, then in the Great War commanded a subchaser group based in Ireland.
He became noted for his incisive reporting and after the war, visited Germany, sat in on the peace conference, and then went via the Black Sea to Russia where he observed the fighting in South Russia during the Russian Civil War.
This period was the highlight of his life. He died at a comparatively young age in his fifties as did his father and grandfather before him.
Many of his reports on the situation in the Balkans read as if they were written ten years ago, not eighty, especially the conflict between Greeks and Turks.
Well written and well worth the reading. Belongs on the same shelf as the books by the British agents who operated in Central Asia during the same period.

This book follows an American Naval Officer on his assignment to observe the White Russian forces on the Crimean penninsula. Hugo Koehler arrives when Baron Vrangel is in charge and the war is winding down, but is not yet concluded. Interesting insight and observations are made; this book is a must for those with an interest in this part of Russian history.

I try to read as much as I can about the evangelization of the Jews and burgeoning "Messianic Jewish movement." In my opinion, this book has captured the heart and soul of the subject. I was riveted throughout. I would have liked a bit more focus on theology, however, as the author has some compelling and very well articulated Biblical insights. Unfortunately, these are limited to only a few pages per chapter. Nonetheless, Out of the Darkness is in my opinion a thoroughly inspiring, timely and informative treatment of Jewish revival.

In an effort to "save the Jewish people", many well meaning Christians want to strip the Jewish people of everything they have been called to be by the Creator. This book reveals how sensitive sharing of good news from Torah changes lives of Jewish and non-Jewish people. Once again, sensitivity to the Jewish people tends to begin in other countries other than the U.S. Why is that?

I AM UKRAINIAN BUT ALSO I SPEAKE RUSSIAN. THE BOOK PRACTICALLY STRESSED ME WHEN I WAS YOUNG. NOW I AM THINKING ABOUT THE BEST TRANSLATION OF B.PASTERNAK'S POETRY GIVEN IN THIS BOOK, ESPECIALLY BICOUSE OF THE COMING SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHDAY! IF SOMEBODY KNOWS GOOD TRANSLATION OF PASTERNAK'S "HAMLET" AND "SHAKESPEARE" PLEASE DO NOT HESISTATE TO COMMUNICATE WITH ME. ALSO I TRY TO TRANSLATE PASTERNAK'S POETRY INTO UKRAINIAN

This book goes into great detail about "Doctor Zhivago" by Pasternak. It is NOT obvious in the Amazon documentation that this is not the actual novel by Pasternak. DO NOT buy this book if you need to purchase the original novel.

"Jeffrey Burds's _Peasant Dreams and Market Politics_ is an original, insightful interpretive study of the Russian peasantry confronting new challenges and opportunities during the late-19th century. The book focuses on peasant outmigration in the Central Industrial Region (encompassing the 300 kilometers around Moscow) in the period between the abolition of serfdom (1861) and the first significant rebellions against the tsar (1905). This was a period when an expanding commodity economy provided new opportunities for migrant peasant workers to gain supplemental incomes to offset the redemption taxes that their families and villages were collectively obligated to pay in exchange for taking possession of land formerly owned by the gentry. But, peasant outmigration also brought with it new threats for the traditional Russian peasant commune, which had to guard against the permanent resettlement of productive individuals or whole families who could place the remainder of the commune members under greater economic hardship as they endeavored to meet their tax obligations. The commune's efforts to contain these threats, and the manner in which the commune and individual peasants adapted to changing opportunity structures and outside influences, represent the most original and illuminating features of this book. . . . This book is an extremely interesting, informative, and well-researched ideographic work by a skilled historian. It is based on 3 years of archival research and analysis of ethnographic material, ranging from police records and peasant memoirs to written agreements among peasant households and their communes. It is written in a language accessible to specialists as well as nonspecialists. For area specialists familiar with the story of industrialization and peasant outmigration in prerevolutionary Russia, this book will offer a needed corrective for some of the more simplified, conventional characterizations of Russian peasant behavior. Valuable insights also can be gained from Burds's original treatment of the significance of reputational concerns in village life and his analysis of how commune norms and practices were influenced by, and deployed to contain, an expanding commodity economy." - Rudra Sil, University of Pennsylvania

Advance Reviews

"Brilliant, subtle, and richly documented, Burds's study of how the village and urban worlds remade one another puts the study of the peasantry, of urbanization, and of industrialization in Russia on a wholly new footing. His eye for the telling details of social relations, consumption, reputation, and the principles of navigation between two worlds illuminates subject after subject." - James C. Scott, Yale University

"The book contributes in fundamental ways to the historical debate about Russian development before the revolution. . . . It is original, brilliantly researched, and fascinating reading." - Lynne Viola, University of Toronto

"This excellent book . . . makes an important contribution to the fields of peasant studies, Russian history, and historical anthropology in general. Burds' analysis is original, lucid and convincing. . . . A pleasure to read. His main argument is that the village community dealt with the threat of change by anthropomorphizing it. The village community responded to the threat of modernity by anathematizing the most vivid symbols of modernity: agents with contact with the outside world. And the peasant migrant workers embodied this contact in the eyes of villagers. . . . While most historians have long tended to focus on high politics, Burds' work presents a strikingly new view of Russia's 'grand failure' from below. . . . Burds analyzes the 'culture of denunciation' as a process of constructing the enemy other out of the new forces threatening traditional village relations." - Hiroaki Kuromiya, Indiana University

"Jeffrey Burds' excellent study of the distinctive patterns of entrepreneurial activity, market strategies, and a commodity culture among nineteenth-century Russian peasants can serve as an important 'usable past' for post-Communist Russia, as it strives to find historical precedents and native roots for today's market reforms." - Brenda Meehan, University of Rochester

Published Reviews

"The strength of [Burds'] presentation is [his] rich, well-informed description of specific cases, often with long quotations from primary sources new to the literature, together with a complete command of the modern literature in peasant Russia." - James T. Flynne, College of the Holy Cross [Choice, November 1998]

"Using archival and published sources, Jeffrey Burds examines the impact of peasant migratory labor (otkhod) on villages of the Central Industrial Region. As he notes, this study is a "needed corrective" to previous treatments of otkhod which have been focused primarily on the impact of peasant migrations on urban development. Instead, Burds offers an interpretation of how familial and communal institutions incorporated increasing contact with town life and the market into their survival strategies during the onslaught of post-emancipation socioeconomic changes. Analysis begins by examining the threat of increasing otkhod in the village. Given krugovaia poruka (collective guarantee) the departure of entire families resulted in increased fiscal burdens for others. Futhermore, sons frequently found factory work easier and more rewarding than life on a farm. This threatened the ability of fathers to control sons and posed a challenge for communal elders seeking to extract urban earnings by binding migrants to the village. Finally, migrant laborers who returned to the village with changed tastes were potential sources of "moral corruption"--another threat to traditional social structures. Chapters 3, 4, and 7 discuss strategies communes and parents used to meet these challenges. A key strategy involved the control of passports. Otkhodniki remained responsible for assessments on their allotments. The commune ensured that it got some of this money up front as a "departure fee" before issuing of a passport, and often included a contract stipulating additional payments. Occassionally, communes arranged to have employers garnish otkhodnik wages. Communal and parental pressure to marry also served to tie otkhodniki to their rural roots, as did communal involvement in rural hiring. There were also legal options: refusal to issue another passport; threatened auction of property; and forcible recall to the village under police guard. Moral transgressions were checked by a "culture of denunciation"--the practice of labeling as "heretics" those migrants who seemed too attached to urban ways. To avoid any or all of these problems otkhodniki relied on "benefactors" (the maligned kulak) and the preservation of their village reputation. Migration, Burds notes, was a two-way street. Many migrants failed, and most became sensitized to fluctuations in the business cycle. Urban earnings could be just as uncertain as harvests. This helps explain why the majority of those with no allotment sent wages home. Maintaining a place in the village was a prudent hedge against an uncertain market. At the same time, urban contact encouraged a "culture of acquisition" in the village. This discussion constitutes the most original part of the book. The culture of acquisition meant not only new consumer tastes but also the gradual development of a café and shopping culture. As otkhod earnings invaded the village, the increased demand for goods led to the creation of fixed shops and taverns (which, through the sale of franchises, also provided a way for the commune to siphon urban earnings). The most significant consequence of this was not the fact that peasants now had a more convenient source of drink, but that they now interacted in a new way. The saloon became the center of village life, a source of news about a variety of topics, a place to make deals, and a place to show off new acquisitions. This infusion of otkhod earnings and newly acquired tastes created higher consumer expectations--an increase in the "break-even point" peasants used to evaluate their standard of living. Burds suggests that any "rural crisis" at the end of the last century must be assessed against this more dynamic conception of peasant needs. . . . . Burds's book is essential reading for all those with interests in the peasantry and economic development." --David Darrow, University of Dayton [The Russian Review, 1999]

Robert Thurston and Bernd Bonwetsch ably collaborate to edit The People's War: Responses To World War II In The Soviet Union, an informative wealth of writings drawn from notable scholars and historians on how ordinary soviet citizens responded to the experiences, horrors, and deprivations of war, including Stalinist leadership and the Nazi invasion of the motherland. The contributors draw upon a wealth of archival and recently published material, much of which was not previously available until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Here detailed is the calculated destruction of a Jewish town by the Germans, an chilling picture of life in occupied Minsk, cultural developments, women's roles in combat, the morale of ordinary Red Army troops, and more. A balanced, comprehensive picture of civilian life behind the front lines, candid descriptions of command structure and the repressive power of the soviet state, and the reaction, cooperation, and opposition to them by the soviet people, all provide a wide ranging, complex, and revealing historical portrait not previously possible and highly recommended for students of Soviet studies, World War II history, and the endurance of the human spirit under even the most difficult of circumstances.

Thurston is history professor at Miami U.,Ohio,his books include: "life & terror in Stalin's Russia".(1996)..which might be considered subtitle for this well documented book. Of 5.74 million Soviet POW's, an estimed 60% died in prisons by end 1941. Stalin refused aid to all POWs held..even his own son. Contributors include German & Russian top scholars.

Persuasive Images is a visually stunning book. No other book comes close in terms of quality or, for that matter, quantity.

Viewed purely as an art book, it's a must-have. As a history book, it's jaw-droppingly intriguing. I have never found a book, website, or museum collection as appealing and thought-provoking as you will find in this book.

I teach high school -- I have had students stay 3 hours after school just to pore over the pages of this book. It's that good.

I was extremely pleased with this book. . .I was looking for images and I was not disappointed. From humorous to chilling it's filled with tremendously powerful works. . .many of which are as vivid and visceral now as I'm sure they were then. . .

Daniil Kharms writes some very good funny short prose. The Plummeting Old Women is one of these. After reading this you'll wonder why the Soviets locked him up.

Daniil Kharms writes great short prose. Many of his works are silly and funny and The Plummeting Old Women is one them. After reading this you'll wonder why the Soviets locked Kharms up.

This is a marvelous book. It is extremely difficult to accurately capture the flavor of the original writing in translation, but Kunitz has done this and more - the English itself is poetry. The book is dual language, so readers of Russian can read the original next to the English. Both are excellent.

The selection is fairly representative of Akhmatova's life work, with early poems from 1909, through her affair with the poet Blok in the teens, the Terror and War, to her deathbed in 1961. I particularly enjoyed the translation of the epic "Requiem". Without a doubt, this is the best English version I have ever read. My only complaint is its berevity - at 40 poems, it merely whets the readers appetite for more - a pity, given the outstanding nature of both poet and translator.

For those who are not familiar with Anna Akhmatova, this is a gem. If you have read some of her work, this is a must-have volume. Enjoy!

This is the volume that introduced me to the works of Anna Akhmatova. After having read this in one evening, I could not sleep - I was so moved by her poetry. The translation must have captured her heart and soul because it certainly captured mine - it inspired me to get up in the middle of the night and draw pictures to go with what I had read. I understood at once the love the Russian people have for her. Since then, I have gobbled up everything translated into English that I can find, but I still think this little volume is the best of all and return to it again and again. Enjoy......