Lexington Books
Pages: 308
•
Trim: 6⅜ x 9¼
978-0-7391-9930-5 • Hardback • November 2014 • $147.00 • (£113.00)
978-0-7391-9932-9 • Paperback • November 2016 • $64.99 • (£50.00)
978-0-7391-9931-2 • eBook • November 2014 • $61.50 • (£47.00)
Cadra Peterson McDaniel is assistant professor at Texas A&M University–Central Texas.
Dedication
Transliteration and Translation Notes
Acknowledgments
Contents
List of Photographs and Tables
Introduction
Chapter 1: Ideological Goodwill:
American and Soviet Cultural Exchange Plans
Chapter 2: Restricted Repertoire:
Planning for the Bolshoi’s 1959 Tour
Chapter 3: The Class Struggle and Shakespeare:
The Soviets’ Interpretation of Romeo and Juliet
Chapter 4: Imperial Communism:
The Soviets’ Reinterpretation of P. I. Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake
Chapter 5: Preserving and Elevating the Classics:
Giselle
Chapter 6: State Approved Innovations:
The Stone Flower
Chapter 7: Soviet Highlights:
The Very Eclectic Soviet Artistic Scene
Chapter 8: Tempered Success:
Ballet's Role in the Cold War
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Cadra McDaniel’s book, which is based on serious and solid research using both archival and published documents engaging contemporary Soviet and American periodicals and occasionally oral history, is a welcome addition to the growing literature about cultural production/consumption, cultural politics, and ideology in the Soviet Union, especially during post-Stalin socialism. It is devoted to a very important topic— the role of cultural diplomacy in both the relaxation of international tensions and the intensification of ideological confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States during the rule of Nikita Khrushchev. Its main focus is on the history of the successful Bolshoi Ballet's tour in the U.S. in 1959, which is presented as a major chapter in Soviet cultural diplomacy and an episode of the Soviet ‘artful warfare’ against the Americans.
— Sergei Zhuk, Ball State University
This book is well worth the attention of anyone interested in the Cold War or in the value of cultural exchanges, then, now, and in the future. . . .McDaniel's work will awaken those scholars who concentrate on military and political confrontations, such as those concerning Russian activity in Ukraine, to the importance of the calming and rewarding aspects of cultural interactions.
— The Russian Review