- Author: James H. Billington
- Title: The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture
- Binding: trade paperback
- Size: about 6" x 9" x 4"
- Pagination: 786pp plus front- and endmatter, plus catalog pages
- Published: Vintage Books, 1970 printing
- Condition: Good; covers somewhat shelfworn; spine curled but mainly from binding (no creases); somewhat musty (but never damp! stored on a dry shelf in a damp basement that had some miasma); some speckles inside covers; pages age-toned; interior otherwise clean and complete
[OCR is approximate, as always]
"... I cannot begin to touch on the riches of this book. It is packed with detail without being dry, vivid without being 'colorful,' and wide-ranging without cry. ing up special theories. This is, moreover, a cultural history in which is implicit the knowledge that ideas do not follow simply from other ideas, that cultural history interprets and modifies political and economic history, but rides on their currents and is swayed by their events. Historians who are willing-and able--to write for the layman on a subject of this scope are rare. Here is one whose work will do more to make Russia understandable to the west than fifty cultural exchange sorties." -Elizabeth Janeway, Books Today
"Once in a great while a book appears which is so bold and brilliant that all other efforts in its genre seem pallid and ordinary by comparison. James H. Billington's The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture is such a book. Billington is a skillful writer . . . The result is a highly contro versial, personal, and idiosyncratic interpretation of the history of Russian culture. He makes a conscious effort, through the style of the book and his choice of illustrative material, to involve the reader, to put him in the Russian scene of the time. . ..[His] prose is poetic and suggestive in con juring up both a picture and the mood of a period. . . . He draws on a variety of sources, moving with equal confidence from literature and philosophy to music, art, architecture, and even philology." -George D. Jackson, Jr.. Slavic Review
"This is an extremely interesting and well written book. ... The reader wi profit immensely from the author's incisive observations on the basic oppo tunism of Lenin and his successors, the differences between Marxism an Leninism as concern the 'dictatorship of the proletariat,' the subject of eco nomic maturation, and a totalitarian Party, and the outlines and direction of what is fundamentally Soviet Russian, rather than the USSR, foreign policy -Clarence A. Manning, The Ukrainian Quarterly
a rich and readable introduction to the whole sweep of Russian cultur and intellectual history from Kievan times to the post-Khrushchev era.
Take a close look at the auction images for details of contents and condition. If you have any questions at all please send a message through eBay before bidding.
NOTE: There may be more images in this listing than eBay shows in the top "gallery". Be sure to scroll down to view the full set, if so.
Be sure to check our eBay Store for thousands of other listings like this one.
Orders will be sent out within three business days of receipt of payment. If you're in a hurry and would like expedited shipping (Priority or Express shipping), please let us know before paying so we can adjust your invoice. Books are sent Media Rate within the US, and other small items are sent Parcel by default.
If you would like combined shipping, please (1) contact us to let us know, and then (2) wait to pay until you're finished shopping (but try to keep it within a 4 day period, please). Just leave the items in your eBay Cart and then request an updated invoice after you're done.
If you pay for an item, we are obliged to ship it to you, and cannot combine it with subsequent purchases.
If you're waiting for a separate auction item to finish, please contact us to let us know.
