P. A. Stolypin: The Search for Stability in Late Imperial Russia

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P. A. Stolypin: The Search for Stability in Late Imperial Russia
Abraham Ascher
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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This is the first comprehensive biography in any language of Russia’s leading statesman in the period following the Revolution of 1905. Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs from 1906 to 1911 (when he was assassinated), P. A. Stolypin aroused deep passions among his contemporaries as well as subsequent historians.

In the twilight of Nicholas II’s reign he was virtually the only man who seemed to have a clear notion of how to reform the socioeconomic and political system of the empire. His efforts in that direction—in agriculture, local administration, religious freedom, social legislation, the legal system—were radically new departures for the Russian state. His detractors disdained him as a power-hungry, coldhearted politician who was unscrupulous in pursuing his own career and would use any means to restore the tsarist autocracy following the frightening turbulence of 1905. Stolypin’s admirers, however, argued that he was a man of vision who pursued policies that would have transformed the country into a modern state with social and political institutions comparable to those of the West.

Lenin’s celebrated denunciation of Stolypin as “hangman-in-chief” set the tone for official Soviet work on his career. In the West, some historians and émigré writers, most notably Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, erred in the opposite direction. By contrast, this book—on the basis of extensive Russian archival documentation only recently available to historians—seeks to provide a balanced portrait of Stolypin that encompasses the complex, even divergent, impulses that motivated him.

Although Stolypin did not shrink from the use of force to stamp out unrest, he lamented the shedding of blood and much preferred nonviolent means to curb the opposition. In foreign affairs, he was uncompromising in his insistence that Russia should avoid entanglements that could lead to military conflict. To be sure, he was deeply committed to monarchical rule, but he did not consider it advisable to abolish the elected legislature or to deprive it of its authority. Stolypin’s program, a blend of reformism, authoritarianism, and nationalism, was more likely than any other to lead Russia toward social and political stability. But Tsar Nicholas II, his entourage, and ultra-conservatives could not bring themselves to yield a portion of their privileges and prerogatives in return for a reduced, though still significant, role in a changed Russia. They succeeded in undermining the Prime Minister’s attempts at fundamental reform and thus scuttled Imperial Russia’s last such attempt before its demise.

As Long As The Rivers Flow (Scholastic Biography)

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Traces of racism
it's about being human, about being who you are, powerfully

As Long As The Rivers Flow (Scholastic Biography)
Paula G. Allen & Patricia C. Smith
Manufacturer: Scholastic Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0590478702

Six Months Off: An American Family's Australian Adventure (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)

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Six Months Off: An American Family's Australian Adventure (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)
Lamar Alexander
Manufacturer: G. K. Hall & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0816148465

Tennessee Governors At Home: Executive Residences Of Tennessee's First Families

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Tennessee Governors At Home: Executive Residences Of Tennessee's First Families
Ridley, II Wills
Manufacturer: Hillsboro Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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In the Open: Diary of a Homeless Alcoholic

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It's a diary
Diary of a Wasted Talent
A fascinating and puzzling look at a very strange life!

In the Open: Diary of a Homeless Alcoholic
Timothy E. Donohue
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226157687

This book is startling, a brutal first-person narrative of life on the drunken underside of America. It's also often infuriating. Donohue is obviously intelligent and seems to have chosen his life in the gutter. While one might honestly wonder why we should listen to a drunk who sleeps in ditches expound on esoteric economic theories, the quality of the writing and the power of the narrative carry the day. In the Open is a peculiar book that disturbs as it enlightens.

Compelling, raw, and painfully self-aware, In the Open describes an existence most people can barely imagine. A first-hand account of one man's struggle with homelessness and alcoholism, this diary records a world full of physical degradation and despair that is not without unpredictable moments of striking beauty.

Donohue's experiences are brutal, but his perceptions are poetic. This account of an intelligent and sensitive man in the grip of alcoholism and homelessness challenges our perceptions of those on the margins of American contemporary life.

"Donohue recorded this often-moving account during a four-year period of homelessness caused by his alcoholism. . . . There are many brilliant observations here on a range of topics, including human nature, technology, and capitalism. . . . Donohue's life on the fringe also provides an inside look at the homeless system of overnight shelters, labor offices, and food stamp providers. But, somehow, in spite of all the negatives, a hopeful book emerges."—Booklist

"A startlingly original book. In this confessional age, Donohue's diary becomes a different sort of tell-all, a palimpsest that forces us to extract the author from his own writing. . . . Donohue comes to resemble Swift's Gulliver"—Nicholas Nesson, Boston Phoenix

"Donohue punctuates his account of 'domiciling within the black walls of a mosquito-infested night' with rambling metaphysical asides in the style of an eighteenth-century philosophe."—Molly McQuade, Lingua Franca

"Despite hunger, homelessness, dead-end jobs and abusive drinking, what is most striking about Donohue is his amazing optimism and endurance."—Patrick Markee, Nation

"Donohue is a gifted writer. . . . But what gives [his diary] the breath of life is that it is written by an artist."—Alec Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times Book Review

The difference is that Orwell never became part of world he described. Exploring the world of the lower classes, he was constantly betrayed by his "lower-upper-middle-class" mannerisms and tastes. Timothy Donohue is all too much a part of the world he describes--namely, the nightmarish world of the late-stage alcoholic.

On the surface, "In the Open" is about a man who freely admits he's trapped in alcohol's clutches but is somehow able to string together a carefully reasoned argument in favor of food stamp reform, typing his manuscript at public libraries whenever he's sober and has the opportunity.

His thesis proceeds with fits and starts, however, as Donohue--who sees himself as an unappreciated visionary--struggles with simple tasks made monumentally difficult by his disease. Obtaining money, finding and keeping a menial job, avoiding the police and bullies, keeping his few possessions intact--all these things demand increasing expenses of time and energy as the author tries unsuccessfully to moderate his drinking.

It's not unusual for an alcoholic to reason that the problem isn't with himself but with the rest of the world. What's unusual is for an alcoholic to go to the lengths to which Donohue has gone to persuade the world that he's right and it's wrong. There may be some sense to Donohue's economic proposals, but then there may be some sense to the musings of a teenager who talks metaphysics while smoking pot. His ideas are nothing if not grandiose--and grandiosity is one of the hallmarks of alcoholism. There's something about Donohue's economic plan that rings false; perhaps it's our awareness that what Donohue's really trying to reconstruct is not the American welfare system but his own shattered Self. If he can prove (to himself at least) that the system's broken, then who can blame him for checking out?

Donohue is at his best when he's describing the landscape and his immediate surroundings, which are by turns enchanting and menacing. There's no denying he has a gift for descriptive prose. Seeing this gift in the service of such a wayward project, however, is somewhat depressing. If he can hit patches of brilliance while drunk and living on the street, where's the limit to what he could do if he got his life turned around? (On the other hand, if Donohue were leading a "normal" life, he might not feel compelled to write at all.)

Oddly, this book is presented with no commentary apart from what's on the dust jacket. There's no Introduction or Forword to put the author and his plight in perspective. There's no Afterword; the narrative ends abruptly, and the reader is left with many questions. Did Donohue ever get his drinking "under control"? Did he ever realize that he wasn't that much different from other alcoholics after all? Did he ever find a spiritual solution to his torment? Is he even still alive?

Because the publisher, the University of Chicago Press, offers such scant explanation, we're also left wondering why the book was published in the first place. Did the editors find merit in Donohue's economic proposals, or is the book intended as an example of the lengths to which a damaged psyche will go to justify itself? The reader is left to draw his or her own conclusions.