{"title":"James Billington","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"icon-and-axe-book-james-billington-9780394708461","title":"The Icon and Axe","description":"\"A sweeping, intricate description of Russian cultural history, spanning the pre-Romanov era through six centuries to the reign of Joseph Stalin. Flowing with ease through time and topic - from art to music, literature, philosophy, mythology and more - the book provides readers with an alluring portrayal of Russia's proud heritage. Its impressive scope and lasting insights have made it a foundational text in Russian studies. In fact, it was this book, more than any other, that captured my imagination and propelled me toward the study of Russia and the Soviet Union.\" --Condoleezza Rice, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"A rich and readable introduction to the whole sweep of Russian cultural and intellectual history from Kievan times to the post-Khruschev era.\" -\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Includes Illustrations, references, index.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49523090751761,"sku":"GOR002776937","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50034360484113,"sku":"CIN0394708466G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50907001422097,"sku":"NGR9780394708461","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50998543483153,"sku":"CIN0394708466VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51720806039825,"sku":"CIN0394708466A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52707385442577,"sku":"GOR002247086","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0394708466.jpg?v=1751072248"},{"product_id":"fire-in-the-minds-of-men-book-james-billington-9780765804716","title":"Fire in the Minds of Men","description":"This book traces the origins of a faith--perhaps the faith of the century. Modern revolutionaries are believers, no less committed and intense than were Christians or Muslims of an earlier era.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49786660815121,"sku":"NGR9780765804716","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50142467129617,"sku":"GOR006827176","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50896322789649,"sku":"GOR007871476","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51270439207185,"sku":"NIN9780765804716","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51591179141393,"sku":"GOR014339281","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52105094234385,"sku":"CIN0765804719G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52132926521617,"sku":"NLS9780765804716","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52580257071377,"sku":"CIN0765804719VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0765804719.jpg?v=1751296594"},{"product_id":"fire-in-the-minds-of-men-book-james-billington-9781138523586","title":"Fire in the Minds of Men","description":"This book traces the origins of a faith--perhaps the faith of the century. Modern revolutionaries are believers, no less committed and intense than were Christians or Muslims of an earlier era. What is new is the belief that a perfect secular order will emerge from forcible overthrow of traditional authority. This inherently implausible idea energized Europe in the nineteenth century, and became the most pronounced ideological export of the West to the rest of the world in the twentieth century. Billington is interested in revolutionaries--the innovative creators of a new tradition. His historical frame extends from the waning of the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century to the beginnings of the Russian Revolution in the early twentieth century.   The theater was Europe of the industrial era; the main stage was the journalistic offices within great cities such as Paris, Berlin, London, and St. Petersburg. Billington claims with considerable evidence that revolutionary ideologies were shaped as much by the occultism and proto-romanticism of Germany as the critical rationalism of the French Enlightenment. The conversion of social theory to political practice was essentially the work of three Russian revolutions: in 1905, March 1917, and November 1917.   Events in the outer rim of the European world brought discussions about revolution out of the school rooms and press rooms of Paris and Berlin into the halls of power.  Despite his hard realism about the adverse practical consequences of revolutionary dogma, Billington appreciates the identity of its best sponsors, people who preached social justice transcending traditional national, ethnic, and gender boundaries. When this book originally appeared The New Republic hailed it as \"remarkable, learned and lively,\" while The New Yorker noted that Billington \"pays great attention to the lives and emotions of individuals and this makes his book absorbing.\" It is an invaluable work of history and contribution to our understanding of political life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50697442787601,"sku":"NGR9781138523586","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51020203884817,"sku":"NIN9781138523586","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52678540558609,"sku":"NLS9781138523586","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1138523585.jpg?v=1750918832"},{"product_id":"face-of-russia-book-james-h-billington-9781575000893","title":"Face of Russia","description":"When the Soviet communist empire was overthrown by the Russians themselves in August 1991, the change was more clearly anticipated by humanistic students of creativity than by economic and political scientists surrounded by statistics and information. Does the Russian pattern of creativity provide any hints as to how the Russians might solve problems today? Having borrowed the democratic political model of their erstwhile American enemy, will they be able to create a distinctive Russian variant that can endure? Or will they end up destroying their own experiment at accountable, constitutional government and returning to their long tradition of authoritarianism? The Face of Russia--a companion book to the corresponding PBS series--addresses these questions. This is a dazzling and forward-looking history of the Russian people as told through their art--from one of the world's great experts on Russian culture. The story covers eight hundred years of Russian creativity, and introduces us to the new art forms that burst onto the Russian scene and became the vehicles for expressing the creative aspirations of an age as well as the enduring Russian quest to find salvation and entertainment in art. James H. Billington has served since 1987 as the thirteenth Librarian of Congress of the United States. A Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, he taught modern history with a special focus on Russian culture at Harvard and Princeton Universities from 1957 to 1973. He was Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, from 1973 to 1987. Dr. Billington is the author of the classic The Icon and the Ax: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture; Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith; and Russia Transformed: Breakthrough to Hope, an eyewitness account of the failed Communist coup in 1991 and the emergence of Russia as a democratic nation. He is one of the world's leading experts on Russia and has been a policy advisor to presidents and congressmen as well as leaders in the academic, ecclesiastical, and private sectors.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50882190835985,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50882191098129,"sku":"CIN157500089XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/157500089X.jpg?v=1750926709"},{"product_id":"instascam-inside-the-murky-world-of-instagram-scammers-book-james-billington-9798866138623","title":"Instascam: Inside The Murky World Of Instagram Scammers","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52110858584337,"sku":"GOR014322927","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9798866138623.jpg?v=1757136469"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-james-billington.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}