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.