Alan M. Ball is associate professor of history at Marquette University and the author of Russia's Last Capitalists: The Nepmen, 1921-1929 and And Now My Soul is Hardened: Abandoned Children in Soviet Russia, 1918-1930.

Highly respected U.S. scholar Ball is mainly concerned with Russian attitudes and borrowings regarding U.S. technology and culture, but he also deals with Russian perceptions of the U.S. economic and political system and of American life in general. His excellent book is divided into two sections, 'The Early Soviet Period' and 'The Contemporary Era,' but it also briefly touches on the period between these two eras and flashes back occasionally to 19th-century opinions of the U.S. Ball's analysis is balanced, and he provides many useful statistics. Recommended. All levels and libraries.

• Chapter 1 PrefaceChapter 2 Introduction: The Land of the Benzine PegasusPart 3 The Early Soviet EraChapter 4 Soviet AmericanismChapter 5 Heavenly MiraclesChapter 6 Happy Endings and Jolly GuysChapter 7 Arch-Bourgeois MachinesChapter 8 Catch and SurpassPart 9 The Contemporary EraChapter 10 Holy Communion at McDonald'sChapter 11 The American ModelChapter 12 Counter StrikeChapter 13 Conclusion: Gud-Bai Amerika?

Alan M. Ball is associate professor of history at Marquette University and the author of Russia's Last Capitalists: The Nepmen, 1921-1929 and And Now My Soul is Hardened: Abandoned Children in Soviet Russia, 1918-1930.

Highly respected U.S. scholar Ball is mainly concerned with Russian attitudes and borrowings regarding U.S. technology and culture, but he also deals with Russian perceptions of the U.S. economic and political system and of American life in general. His excellent book is divided into two sections, 'The Early Soviet Period' and 'The Contemporary Era,' but it also briefly touches on the period between these two eras and flashes back occasionally to 19th-century opinions of the U.S. Ball's analysis is balanced, and he provides many useful statistics. Recommended. All levels and libraries.

• Chapter 1 PrefaceChapter 2 Introduction: The Land of the Benzine PegasusPart 3 The Early Soviet EraChapter 4 Soviet AmericanismChapter 5 Heavenly MiraclesChapter 6 Happy Endings and Jolly GuysChapter 7 Arch-Bourgeois MachinesChapter 8 Catch and SurpassPart 9 The Contemporary EraChapter 10 Holy Communion at McDonald'sChapter 11 The American ModelChapter 12 Counter StrikeChapter 13 Conclusion: Gud-Bai Amerika?

Alan M. Ball is associate professor of history at Marquette University and the author of Russia's Last Capitalists: The Nepmen, 1921-1929 and And Now My Soul is Hardened: Abandoned Children in Soviet Russia, 1918-1930.

Highly respected U.S. scholar Ball is mainly concerned with Russian attitudes and borrowings regarding U.S. technology and culture, but he also deals with Russian perceptions of the U.S. economic and political system and of American life in general. His excellent book is divided into two sections, 'The Early Soviet Period' and 'The Contemporary Era,' but it also briefly touches on the period between these two eras and flashes back occasionally to 19th-century opinions of the U.S. Ball's analysis is balanced, and he provides many useful statistics. Recommended. All levels and libraries.

• Chapter 1 PrefaceChapter 2 Introduction: The Land of the Benzine PegasusPart 3 The Early Soviet EraChapter 4 Soviet AmericanismChapter 5 Heavenly MiraclesChapter 6 Happy Endings and Jolly GuysChapter 7 Arch-Bourgeois MachinesChapter 8 Catch and SurpassPart 9 The Contemporary EraChapter 10 Holy Communion at McDonald'sChapter 11 The American ModelChapter 12 Counter StrikeChapter 13 Conclusion: Gud-Bai Amerika?