The Americanist community played a vital role in the Cold War, as well as in large part directing the cultural consumption of Soviet society and shaping perceptions of the US. To shed light onto this important, yet under-studied, academic community, Sergei Zhuk here explores the personal histories of prominent Soviet Americanists, considering the myriad cultural influences - from John Wayne's bravado in the film Stagecoach to Miles Davis - that shaped their identities, careers and academic interests. Zhuk's compelling account draws on a wide range of understudied archival documents, periodicals, letters and diaries as well as more than 100 exclusive interviews with prominent Americanists to take the reader from the post-war origins of American studies, via the extremes of the Cold War, thaw and perestroika, to Putin's Russia. Soviet Americana is a comprehensive insight into shifting attitudes towards the US throughout the twentieth century and an essential resource for all Soviet and Cold War historians.
| ISBN: | 9781784539108 |
| Publication date: | 18th December 2017 |
| Author: | Sergei Zhuk |
| Publisher: | I.B. Tauris an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 352 pages |
| Series: | Library of Modern Russian History |
| Genres: |
Historiography Cold wars and proxy conflicts International relations Institutions and learned societies: general Biography: historical, political and military Oral history The Holocaust Second World War |