Hedrick SmithReseñas

Hard to read because it basically explains how collectively how Americans got sold out by the 1%. It's hard to see things getting better for America anytime soon.

This was one of our books for a course in the SIU Sociological department. US and Soviet society.½

Should have been dated but...

The trends Hedrick Smith described so aptly continue today. None of the problems he's described have been fixed....

Just a new set of examples from Trumpsville.....

Very good book, 22nd printing (1989) and updated version of the Copyright 1976 original. Very good look at everyday Russian life, attitudes, and changes within Russia in the 1970s-1980s.

Exhaustive (600+ pages in pb) account of the Gorbachev era in the USSR, with a detailed examination of what he was up against in attempting to turn things around. While Smith is rather sympathetic to Gorbachev (especially in the final chapter), he doesn't shy away from pointing out the numerous errors he made. It's questionable whether any man could really have tackled the job and kept the state going, intact. Personally, I prefer his previous book "The Russians." This was informative, but an awfully hard slog.

"The Russians" by Hedrick Smith is a book I loved the first time I read it in the 1980s. I reread it in the early 2000s and it more or less held up, even though things in the former Soviet Union were changing drastically. It is probably still of interest today because he looks at Russians as people, how they act in public, in private, among strangers, with bureaucracy, at work, at school and everywhere in-between. Smith and his family spent 4 years in Moscow during the late '60s and early '70s. He took every opportunity to meet people and find out what they were thinking, how things were done and he was an astute observer. It is entertaining and enlightening to read, even today. Highly recommended.

A better title for this book would be, "The Life and Times of M. S. Gorbachov." It is a political history of the transition years of 1985-1990 and how the Communist Party was forced by economic rot to release its strangle hold on political power. We all know what happened generally during this period; Smith documents the actual debates, the struggle for power, and the step-by-step move away from Stalinism. I particularly appreciated Smith's recording of his interviews with political figures and the "man in the street" alike. He is fluent in Russian and has the reporter's eye. Most readers (including me) will get a bit lost with all the names -- kinda like reading Tolstoy. The cast is huge. But the center of it all -- with all his faults and failures -- is Gorbachov himself. He was the catalyst for change; he was also in the right place at the right time.

Although older, it is still relevant. It is about Russian culture, and his thesis is that what we see under the Soviets we saw under the Czars. And probably we will see under the Presidents...

If you want a really depressing tour through the growing economic inequality and political stagnation of America over the last four decades, here it is! The transfer of risk to ordinary Americans, and the transfer of reward away from them, has occurred in all kinds of ways, from the destruction of pensions to be replaced by worse-performing 401(k) plans to the destruction of well-paid, longterm jobs. Smith holds out some hope that we can take the country back from the plutocrats in charge—but why we’d start now is not entirely clear.

Indeholder "Forord", "Introduktion", "Første del: Folket", " Den priviligerede klasse: Datsja og Zil", " Forbruger: Kunsten at stå i kø", " Korruption: Om at lave - na ljevo", " Væsen og vaner: Russerne som de er", " Kvinderne: Befriede men ikke frigjorte", " Børnene: Mellem forældre og skole", " Ungdommen: Rock uden roll", "Anden del: Systemet", " Livet på landet: Hvorfor man ikke vil blive derude", " Industri-problemer: Skoro budjet - det er her snart", " Lederne, og de, der lader sig lede: Længsel efter en streng hersker", " Partiet: Kommunist-ritualer og kommunist-vid", " Patriotisme: Anden Verdenskrig - intet og ingen skal blive glemt!", " Sibirien: Højt spil i permafrosten", " Information: TASS i farver - og læserbreve", "Tredje del: Problemer", " Kultur: Kat og mus", " De intellektuelles liv: Øhavet Privatkultur", " Religion: Solzjenitsyn og det russofile Rusland", " Systemkritik: Den moderne undertrykkelses-teknologi", " Den ydre verden: De udvalgtes domæne - de forfulgtes asyl", " Konvergens: Bliver de efterhånden som vi?", "Register".

Meget lærerig murstensbog om russerne i tiden inden glasnost. Revnerne i murene beskrives nydeligt og måske er der endda antydninger af nutidens Putin-rusland som en mulig fremtid.

The book asks a simple question with an amazingly simple answer. The answer provided in WHO STOLE THE AMERICAN DREAM is long and excessively diplomatic. My complete review is at my book review website: http://www.tgblogger.com/?p=1515#more-1515

After this recent snarl over the debt, I felt compelled to learn about how government works - not just the hierarchical system we learn about in government classes, but the tough wrangling of power and personality and special interest.

So here it is - the nature of the beast. The dense snarl of how the American political system works. This book was mainly written during the Reagan era, and makes the most references to his politics. But still, now that these once-contemporary events have become part of history, we now get to see their results with a new hindsight. A very revealing book.

Outstanding analysis of what has happened to the American middle class over the past 30 years. The book took me forever to finish because it repeatedly made me so angry I had to keep putting it down. This is a must read. It will tell you what you already know but will make you angry about knowing it.

In grade 9, our Language Arts teacher had one period of 40 minutes per week where we could read whatever we wanted for the whole period. (Mr. Wilson, D. S. MacKenzie Junior High School, Edmonton, Alberta.) At that stage in my life, I had brought this book to class because I loved to read the thickest books possible. I remember one of my friends saw it and called me a communist. Remember that this was grade 9 level, and in the mid 1970s the Cold War was still on. I was shocked by his name-calling but I was too mortified to complain to the teacher. Secretly, I was proud to be called a communist, and have some distinction from my peers.
I slogged through it and was quite fascinated by the descriptions of everyday people.
Not that we had zero accounts given to us North Americans of the Soviet environment, but you and I know that the ones that we could access were restricted in number and in scope. Apart from the doings of the Brezhnev and Nixon and Ford and Carter which we heard about sporadically on the news reports about the Cold War and arms reduction treaties, it was hard to get any idea of what everyday Russian life was like. Unless you count Russian track and field and gymnastics athletes highlighted during the Olympics every four years. This book accomplished that goal of enlightening me about all the regular people at home in Russia.
Years later, I could graduate on to Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Gogol and The Gulag Archipelago.

It's a wonderful book about an historic era that's gone, and yet seems to be repeating itself. Smith examines Soviet society from the hall of power to the ordinary people in factories and farms across this vast country. Smith's style certainly is rooted in a point of view, but that point of view ultimately apepars to be that, upon closer examination, seemingly different societies actually share a number of characteristics, notleast of which is the desire of ordinary people for better lives. Ultimately, the book is an indictment of the effects of power on holders of any ideology, for in The Russians, Smith certainly disproves the idea of a classless communist society.

Läsvärd och träffande är denna bok om hur det nya Ryssland och alla dess karaktärer ser ut. Minnesvärda och personliga berättelser!

Excellent explanation of the turf battles, PR maneuvers, staff schisms, and other aspects of the political game. I would love to see an updated edition (this one stops with Reagan).

1/22/23

Been a long time since I've read this one, about to read it again. Time gets away from me so still on the re-read list. When that will be I don't know.

Read the book a long time ago, too long to give a proper review. In time, I'll re-read it and give my opinion.