Book picks similar to
Russian Architecture and the West by Dmitry Shvidkovsky


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Slavery and Freedom


Nikolai A. Berdyaev - 1939
    In his view, the only way of escape from the many forms of slavery--spiritual, economic, political--which shackle & improverish the spirit lies in the fuller realization of personality, as he defines it. Berdyaev turned to religious views & played a large part in the renaissance of religious & philosophical thought in Russian intellectual life early in the 20th century. In 1922 he & a number of other intellectuals were expelled from the USSR. His writings most often deal with the problem of freedom & human relations to the world in light of this problem.In Place of an IntroductionPart 1PersonalityMaster, slave & free manPart 2Being & freedom. The slavery of man to beingGod & freedom. The slavery of man to GodNature & freedom. The cosmic lure & the slavery of man to natureSociety & freedom. The social lure & the slavery of man to societyCivilization & freedom. The slavery of man to civilization & the lure of cultural valuesThe slavery of man to himself & the lure of individualismPart 3The lure of slavery & sovereignty. The 3fold image of the stateThe lure of war. The slavery of man to warThe lure & slavery of nationalism. Nation & peopleThe lure & slavery of aristocracy. The 2fold image of aristocracyThe lure of the bourgeois spirit. Slavery to property & moneyThe lure & slavery of revolution. The 2fold image of revolutionThe lure & slavery of collectivism. Enticement of utopia. The 3fold image of socialismThe erotic lure & slavery. Sex, personality & freedomThe aesthetic lure & slavery. Beauty, art & naturePart 4The spiritual liberation of man. Victory over fear & deathThe lure & slavery of history. The three kinds of time. The 2fold interpretation of the end of history. Active-creative eschatology

Defeat in the West


Milton Shulman - 1947
     Among these reasons, Shulman firmly places the responsibility for the magnitude of lost lives at the feet of Adolf Hitler. A combination of the Fuhrer’s military ineptness, his refusal to take advice and his unique position of power made victory in WWII much less likely for Germany. Shulman also gives an account of the major military mistakes made by the German Army — beginning a war with Russia on the eastern front, declaring war on the U.S., and the decisive losses in North Africa. Defeat in the West is an important addition to WWII military history and a must-read for those interested in the subject. “An evaluation of the causes of German defeat, analyzed from interrogations of senior German officers, and a pre-D-day study of the German army, by an officer of the Intelligence Staff of the First Canadian Army.” Kirkus Reviews "His account of the strange relations between Hitler and the German General Staff is most revealing." The Canadian Historical Review "The sources that he has utilized are impressive. They consist essentially of Anglo-American intelligence summaries, which often incorporated captured German documents, of the published records of the Nuremberg Trial, and of his own and other interrogations of German officers." Saturday Review Milton Shulman (1 September 1913 – 24 May 2004) was a Canadian author, film and theatre critic. He joined the Canadian Army in 1944 as a major and by the war's end he was an intelligence officer with the First Canadian Army. He interviewed many of the captured German generals in the following months and years including Gerd von Rundstedt and Kurt Meyer. As a result of these interviews he wrote the classic Second World War military history Defeat in the West.

Doré's London: All 180 Illustrations from London, A Pilgrimage


Gustave Doré - 1970
    This comprehensive collection of drawings by Gustave Doré, France's most celebrated graphic artist of the period, presents a panoramic portrait of that engrossing city — from fashionable ladies riding in a sunlit park to ragged wretches in a shadowy side street. Here are amazingly perceptive sketches of workaday London, busy market places, the Christy Minstrels, a waterman's family, thieves gambling, the Devils' Acre in Westminster, flower girls, waifs and strays, a wedding at the Abbey, provincials in search of lodgings, a garden party, prisoners in the Newgate exercise yard, stalls at Covent Garden Opera House, and many other scenes that capture the London of a bygone era.

Radiohead: Hysterical and Useless


Martin Clarke - 1999
    Starting with the band's origins in Oxford, journalist Martin Clarke covers the essential points: Radiohead's breakout single "Creep," the pivotal album OK Computer, Thom Yorke's continuing political and artistic evolution, and the band's future. This revised edition includes a close look at how the band escaped the rock straightjacket with Kid A and Amnesiac , as well as their most recent album, Hail to the Thief . Clark also offers an in-depth examination of the outspoken, mysterious Yorke, offering insight into the personal demons the vocalist has battled throughout his career as Radiohead's frontman. An incisive look at one of the world's most beloved, followed musical acts, Radiohead: Hysterical and Useless provides stimulating coverage of a provocative group.

Aloha, Magnum: Larry Manetti's Magnum, P.I. Memories


Larry Manetti - 1999
    Aloha Magnum is a chronicle of Larry Manetti's wild childhood, his crazy days in Hollywood, his moonlighting as a prominent restaurateur, and his escapades with the rich, famous, and equally outrageous.

White Flock


Anna Akhmatova - 2013
    Her works range from short lyric love poetry to longer, more complex cycles, such as Requiem, a tragic depiction of the Stalinist terror. One of the forefront leaders of the Acmeism movement, which focused on rigorous form and directness of words, she was a master of conveying raw emotion in her portrayals of everyday situations. During the time of heavy censorship and persecution, her poetry gave voice to the Russian people. Anna Akhmatova published the collection "White Flock" in 1917. Joseph Brodsky later described this volume as writing of personal lyricism tinged with the "note of controlled terror." Today, it remains among her most celebrated publications. It is presented here in full, in a dual-language book, translated by Andrey Kneller.

No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939-1945


Norman Davies - 2006
     Davies asks readers to reconsider what they know about World War II, and how the received wisdom might be biased or incorrect. He poses simple questions that have complicated and unexpected answers. For instance, Can you name the five biggest battles of the war in Europe? Or, What were the main political ideologies that were contending for supremacy? The answers to these and other questions?and the implications of those answers?will surprise even those who feel that they are experts on the subject. Norman Davies has established himself as one of the preeminent scholars of World War II history, in the tradition of John Keegan and Antony Beevor. "No Simple Victory" is an invaluable contribution to twentieth century history and an illuminating portrait of a conflict which continues to raise questions and provoke debate today.

Prince Serebryani: An Historical Novel of the Times of Ivan the Terrible and of the Conquest of Siberia


Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy - 1862
    K. Tolstoy was above all poet; but he also wrote a historical novel from the time of Ivan The Terrible, Prince Serebryani, which had a great success, partly because in it for the first time censorship had permitted fiction to deal with the half-mad Tsar who played the part of Louis XI. of the Russian Monarchy, but especially on account of its qualities as a historical novel.

The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s


Piers Brendon - 2000
    In this sweeping history, Piers Brendon brings the tragic, dismal days of the 1930s to life. From Stalinist pogroms to New Deal programs, Brendon re-creates the full scope of a slow international descent towards war. Offering perfect sketches of the players, riveting descriptions of major events and crises, and telling details from everyday life, he offers both a grand, rousing narrative and an intimate portrait of an era that make sense out of the fascinating, complicated, and profoundly influential years of the 1930s.

The Amber Room: The Fate of the World's Greatest Lost Treasure


Cathy Scott-Clark - 2004
    But after the Nazi invasion, it was never seen again. Now, in a masterpiece of detection, investigative journalists Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy have at last unraveled the jumble of evidence surrounding the Amber Room's fate. Journeying through the former Soviet bloc, and exploring archives in St. Petersburg and Berlin, they reveal what happened to the most valuable lost treasure in the world-and why the truth has been withheld for so long. Their revelations have broken a conspiracy of lies by the Russians who, for decades, have blamed the Amber Room's disappearance on the widespread looting of Nazi Germany, rather than face the shocking truth.

Comrade Rockstar: The Life and Mystery of Dean Reed, the All-American Boy Who Brought Rock 'n' Roll to the Soviet Union


Reggie Nadelson - 2006
    Failing to gain recognition for his music in his native United States, he achieved celebrity in South America in the early 1960s and then, unbelievably, became the biggest rock star in the Soviet Union, where he was awarded the Lenin Prize and his icons were sold alongside those of Josef Stalin. His albums went gold from Bulgaria to Berlin. He made highly successful movies and, naively earnest, was an unwitting acolyte for socialism; everywhere he went, he was mobbed by his fans. And then, in 1986, at the height of his fame, right after 60 Minutes had devoted a segment to him, finally giving him the recognition he had never attained at home, he drowned in mysterious circumstances in East Berlin.Drawn magnetically to his story, Reggie Nadelson pursued the mystery of Dean Reed's life and death across America and Eastern Europe, her own journey mirroring his. As she traveled, the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union crumbled, and Reed became an increasingly alluring figure, his life an unrepeatable tale of the Cold War world. Encountering the characters— musicians and DJs, politicians and public figures, lovers and wives—who peopled Reed's life, Nadelson was drawn further and further into a seedy, often hilarious subculture of sex, politics, and rock 'n' roll. Part biography, part memoir and personal journey, Comrade Rockstar is an unforgettable chronicle of an utterly improbable life

Black Knight: Ritchie Blackmore


Jerry Bloom - 2006
    Dubbed the 'man in black', guitarist Ritchie Blackmore found fame with Seventies rock giants Deep Purple, then walked away from them to create Rainbow, only to abandon them and form another band in 1997 - Blackmore's Night.

Crimean War: A History from Beginning to End


Hourly History - 2020
    More men died in the Crimean War than in the American Civil War which followed soon after, but while the Civil War has been the subject of countless books, articles, and movies, the Crimean War has been virtually ignored.Part of the reason for this is that the causes of the Crimean War are not well understood. Just what made four empires go to war in the Black Sea in 1854? The outcome of the war was also partly responsible; it can be argued that the Crimean War changed nothing and that it is not at all clear why and for what half a million men died. Even the name by which this war is now known was not used at the time; until the twentieth century, this war was known in Britain as the Russian War.Yet the Crimean War is important for a number of reasons. Although it did not change the map of Europe and did not directly cause the fall of any of the combatants, it did indirectly shape the second half of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century in Europe. This war also introduced newspaper reporters and photographers who provided regular dispatches direct from the battlefield, something that became a feature of virtually every war which followed. The presence of these reporters gave the public some idea, almost for the first time, of what war was really like for the men who fought it.Although the Crimean War did not fundamentally change the world, nothing would be quite the same after its conclusion. This is the story of the Crimean War.Discover a plethora of topics such asThe March to WarThe Charge of the Light BrigadeDeath, Disease, and the Lady with the LampInkerman and the Death of the TsarThe Naval WarThe Fall of SevastopolAnd much more!

A History of Future Cities


Daniel Brook - 2013
    Pouring into developing-world “instant cities” like Dubai and Shenzhen, these urban newcomers confront a modern world cobbled together from fragments of a West they have never seen. Do these fantastical boomtowns, where blueprints spring to life overnight on virgin land, represent the dawning of a brave new world? Or is their vaunted newness a mirage?In a captivating blend of history and reportage, Daniel Brook travels to a series of major metropolitan hubs that were once themselves instant cities— St. Petersburg, Shanghai, and Mumbai—to watch their “dress rehearsals for the twenty-first century.” Understanding today’s emerging global order, he argues, requires comprehending the West’s profound and conflicted influence on developing-world cities over the centuries.In 1703, Tsar Peter the Great personally oversaw the construction of a new Russian capital, a “window on the West” carefully modeled on Amsterdam, that he believed would wrench Russia into the modern world. In the nineteenth century, Shanghai became the fastest-growing city on earth as it mushroomed into an English-speaking, Western-looking metropolis that just happened to be in the Far East. Meanwhile, Bombay, the cosmopolitan hub of the British Raj, morphed into a tropical London at the hands of its pith-helmeted imperialists.Juxtaposing the stories of the architects and authoritarians, the artists and revolutionaries who seized the reins to transform each of these precociously modern places into avatars of the global future, Brook demonstrates that the drive for modernization was initially conflated with wholesale Westernization. He shows, too, the ambiguous legacy of that emulation—the birth (and rebirth) of Chinese capitalism in Shanghai, the origins of Bollywood in Bombay’s American-style movie palaces, the combustible mix of revolutionary culture and politics that rocked the Russian capital—and how it may be transcended today.A fascinating, vivid look from the past out toward the horizon, A History of Future Cities is both a crucial reminder of globalization’s long march and an inspiring look into the possibilities of our Asian Century.

After Modern Art, 1945-2000


David Hopkins - 2000
    This book sets out to provide the first concise interpretation of the period as a whole, clarifying the artists and their works along the way. Closely informed by new critical approaches, it concentrates on the relationship between American and European art from the end of the Second World War to the eve of the new millennium.Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, Yves Klein, Andy Warhol, Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, and Damien Hirst are among many artists discussed, with careful attention being given to the political and cultural worlds they inhabited. Moving along a clear timeline, the author highlights key movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Postmodernism, and performance art to explain the theoretical and issue-based debates that have provided the engine for the art of this period.