American girls in red Russia: chasing the Soviet dream
Author:
Publisher:
The University of Chicago Press,
Pub. Date:
2017.
Language:
English
Description
If you were an independent, adventurous, liberated American woman in the 1920s or 1930s where might you have sought escape from the constraints and compromises of bourgeois living? Paris and the Left Bank quickly come to mind. But would you have ever thought of Russia and the wilds of Siberia? This choice was not as unusual as it seems now. As Julia L. Mickenberg uncovers in American Girls in Red Russia, there is a forgotten counterpoint to the story of the Lost Generation: beginning in the late nineteenth century, Russian revolutionary ideology attracted many women, including suffragists, reformers, educators, journalists, and artists, as well as curious travelers. Some were famous, like Isadora Duncan or Lillian Hellman; some were committed radicals, though more were just intrigued by the “Soviet experiment.” But all came to Russia in search of social arrangements that would be more equitable, just, and satisfying. And most in the end were disillusioned, some by the mundane realities, others by horrifying truths. Mickenberg reveals the complex motives that drew American women to Russia as they sought models for a revolutionary new era in which women would be not merely independent of men, but also equal builders of a new society. Soviet women, after all, earned the right to vote in 1917, and they also had abortion rights, property rights, the right to divorce, maternity benefits, and state-supported childcare. Even women from Soviet national minorities—many recently unveiled—became public figures, as African American and Jewish women noted. Yet as Mickenberg’s collective biography shows, Russia turned out to be as much a grim commune as a utopia of freedom, replete with economic, social, and sexual inequities.American Girls in Red Russia recounts the experiences of women who saved starving children from the Russian famine, worked on rural communes in Siberia, wrote for Moscow or New York newspapers, or performed on Soviet stages. Mickenberg finally tells these forgotten stories, full of hope and grave disappointments.
More Details
ISBN:
9780226256122
022625612
022625612
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Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | 704659f9-b7eb-1708-3a99-2c13c2f134ad |
---|---|
full_title | american girls in red russia chasing the soviet dream |
author | mickenberg julia l |
grouping_category | book |
lastUpdate | 2018-04-17 04:51:42AM |
Solr Details
accelerated_reader_interest_level | |
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accelerated_reader_point_value | 0 |
accelerated_reader_reading_level | 0 |
author | Mickenberg, Julia L., |
author_display | Mickenberg, Julia L |
collection_arlington | New Nonfiction |
detailed_location_arlington | Columbia Pike New Nonfiction |
display_description | If you were an independent, adventurous, liberated American woman in the 1920s or '30s where might you have sought escape from the constraints and compromises of bourgeois living? Paris and the Left Bank quickly come to mind. But would you have ever thought of Russia and the wilds of Siberia? This choice was not as unusual as it seems now. As Julia Mickenberg uncovers in 'American Girls in Red Russia', there is a forgotten counterpoint to the story of the Lost Generation: beginning in the late nineteenth century, Russian revolutionary ideology attracted many women, including suffragists, reformers, educators, journalists, and artists, as well as curious travelers. Some were famous, like Isadora Duncan or Lillian Hellman; some were committed radicals, though many more were curious about the "Soviet experiment." But all came to Russia in search of social arrangements that would be more equitable, just, and satisfying. And most in the end were disillusioned, sometimes by the mundane realities, others by ugly truths too horrifying to even contemplate. Mickenberg reveals the complex motives that drew American women to Russia, which appeared to be the very embodiment of modern ideas and ways of living. American women saw in Russia the hope for a new era in which women would be not merely independent of men, but also equal builders of a new society. Russian women, after all, earned the right to vote in 1917, and they also had abortion rights, property rights, the right to divorce, maternity benefits, and state-supported childcare. |
format_arlington | Book |
format_category_arlington | Books |
id | 704659f9-b7eb-1708-3a99-2c13c2f134ad |
isbn | 022625612, 9780226256122 |
item_details | ils:.b19708439|.i21285081|Columbia Pike New Nonfiction|305.4209 MICKE|||1|false|false|||||Due May 7, 2018|Mar 13, 2018|oann|| |
itype_arlington | Hardback |
lexile_score | -1 |
literary_form | Non Fiction |
literary_form_full | Non Fiction |
local_callnumber_arlington | 305.4209 MICKE |
local_time_since_added_arlington | Year |
owning_library_arlington | Arlington Public Library, Aurora Hills, Central, Cherrydale, Columbia Pike, Connection Crystal City, Detention Center, Glencarlyn, Local History, Plaza, Shirlington, Westover |
owning_location_arlington | Columbia Pike |
primary_isbn | 9780226256122 |
publishDate | 2017 |
record_details | ils:.b19708439|Book|Books||English|The University of Chicago Press,|2017.|viii, 427 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
recordtype | grouped_work |
scoping_details_arlington | ils:.b19708439|.i21285081|Checked Out|Checked Out|false|false|true|false|false|true|999||| |
subject_facet | Americans -- Soviet Union -- History, Feminism -- Soviet Union, Women -- Soviet Union -- History, Women -- United States -- History -- 20th century, Women and socialism -- Soviet Union |
title_display | American girls in red Russia : chasing the Soviet dream |
title_full | American girls in red Russia : chasing the Soviet dream / Julia L. Mickenberg |
title_short | American girls in red Russia : |
title_sub | chasing the Soviet dream |