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While attention has been focused on high-level struggles over
control of giant enterprises in China and the former Soviet bloc, a
remarkable but underreported revolution has been occurring at the
grass-roots level. This volume examines the profiles of
entrepreneurs and the patterns of business development in the
post-socialist countries Bringing together the perspectives of all
the social science disciplines, from anthropology through economics
and political science to sociology, the contributors identify the
criteria for survival and success of independent businesses in
different environments. Their findings shed light not only on the
"transition from socialism" at the micro-level, but also on the
conditioning effects of different economic, historical, legal, and
social conditions on the conduct of independent economic
initiatives.
On August 19, 1991, eight high-ranking Soviet officials took over
the government of the USSR and proclaimed themselves its new
rulers. Less than seventy-two hours later, their coup had
collapsed, but it would change the course of history in a way that
no one - certainly not the plotters themselves - could have
foreseen. The editor of this volume, who witnessed these momentous
events, have assembled firsthand accounts of the attempted coup.
They include testimonies from "junta" members and military
officers, resistance leaders and ordinary citizens, Muscovites and
residents of other locales, Russian and foreign journalists,
foreign visitors and returning emigres, as well as Mikhail
Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. Key documents and photographs
complement the individual accounts. The provocative introduction to
the volume places the August events in the larger context - from
the early days of perestroika and glasnost to the second
confrontation at the White House, in October 1993.
While attention has been focused on high-level struggles over
control of giant enterprises in China and the former Soviet bloc, a
remarkable but underreported revolution has been occurring at the
grass-roots level. This volume examines the profiles of
entrepreneurs and the patterns of business development in the
post-socialist countries Bringing together the perspectives of all
the social science disciplines, from anthropology through economics
and political science to sociology, the contributors identify the
criteria for survival and success of independent businesses in
different environments. Their findings shed light not only on the
"transition from socialism" at the micro-level, but also on the
conditioning effects of different economic, historical, legal, and
social conditions on the conduct of independent economic
initiatives.
Masters at visual propaganda, the Bolsheviks produced thousands of
vivid and compelling posters after they seized power in October
1917. Intended for a semi-literate population that was accustomed
to the rich visual legacy of the Russian autocracy and the Orthodox
Church, political posters came to occupy a central place in the
regime's effort to imprint itself on the hearts and minds of the
people and to remold them into the new Soviet women and men. In
this first sociological study of Soviet political posters, Victoria
Bonnell analyzes the shifts that took place in the images,
messages, styles, and functions of political art from 1917 to 1953.
Everyone who lived in Russia after the October revolution had some
familiarity with stock images of the male worker, the great
communist leaders, the collective farm woman, the capitalist, and
others. These were the new icons' standardized images that depicted
Bolshevik heroes and their adversaries in accordance with a fixed
pattern. Like other 'invented traditions' of the modern age,
iconographic images in propaganda art were relentlessly repeated,
bringing together Bolshevik ideology and traditional mythologies of
pre-Revolutionary Russia. Symbols and emblems featured in Soviet
posters of the Civil War and the 1920s gave visual meaning to the
Bolshevik worldview dominated by the concept of class. Beginning in
the 1930s, visual propaganda became more prescriptive, providing
models for the appearance, demeanor, and conduct of the new social
types, both positive and negative. Political art also conveyed
important messages about the sacred center of the regime which
evolved during the 1930s from the celebration of the heroic
proletariat to the deification of Stalin. Treating propaganda
images as part of a particular visual language, Bonnell shows how
people 'read' them - relying on their habits of seeing and
interpreting folk, religious, commercial, and political art (both
before and after 1917) as well as the fine art traditions of Russia
and the West. Drawing on monumental sculpture and holiday displays
as well as posters, the study traces the way Soviet propaganda art
shaped the mentality of the Russian people (the legacy is present
even today) and was itself shaped by popular attitudes and
assumptions. "Iconography of Power" includes posters dating from
the final decades of the old regime to the death of Stalin, located
by the author in Russian, American, and English libraries and
archives. One hundred exceptionally striking posters are reproduced
in the book, many of them never before published. Bonnell places
these posters in a historical context and provides a provocative
account of the evolution of the visual discourse on power in Soviet
Russia.
Nothing has generated more controversy in the social sciences than
the turn toward culture, variously known as the linguistic turn,
culturalism, or postmodernism. This book examines the impact of the
cultural turn on two prominent social science disciplines, history
and sociology, and proposes new directions in the theory and
practice of historical research.
The editors provide an introduction analyzing the origins and
implications of the cultural turn and its postmodernist critiques
of knowledge. Essays by leading historians and historical
sociologists reflect on the uses of cultural theories and show both
their promise and their limitations. The afterword by Hayden White
provides an assessment of the trend toward culturalism by one its
most influential proponents.
"Beyond the Cultural Turn" offers fresh theoretical readings of the
most persistent issues created by the cultural turn and provocative
empirical studies focusing on diverse social practices, the uses of
narrative, and the body and self as critical junctures where
culture and society intersect.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which
commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and
impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes
high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using
print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in
1983.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which
commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and
impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes
high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using
print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in
1983.
What does the Congress do? How does it do it? Is the Congress up to
the challenges ahead? This primer offers students an introduction
to Congress and the role it plays in the US political system. It
explores the different political natures of the House and Senate,
and examines Congress's interaction with other branches of the
Federal government.
Here, for the first time in English translation, are contemporary
accounts of working-class life during the final decades of the
Russian Empire. Written by workers and other close observers of
their milieu, these five selections recreate the world of Russian
labor during a period of rapid industrialization and social change,
a world far more complex and varied than has often been
assumed.
The accounts in "The Russian Worker" explore the daily experiences,
social relations, and aspirations of factory, artisanal, and
sales-clerical workers, both in and outside the place of
employment. Through the eyes of contemporaries we see the routine,
the organization of work, and authority relations on the shop floor
as well as conditions that workers encountered in providing for
food and lodging and their experiences in the areas of religion,
recreation, cultural activities, family ties, and links with the
countryside.
With its vivid and detailed descriptions of working-class life,
"The Russian Worker" provides new material on such important topics
as the formation of workers' social identities, the position of
women, patterns of stratification, and workers' concepts of status
differentiation. An introductory essay by Victoria Bonnell places
the selections in an historical context and examines some of the
central issues in the study of Russian labor. The collection will
be of value not only to specialists in the Russian field, but also
to historians, sociologists, economists, and others with an
interest in the sociology of work, and the history of working
women.
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