10 Top nonfiction books like Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams by David K. Shipler

Cover of Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams by David K. Shipler

Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

By: David K. Shipler

3.99

Format: 448 pages, Paperback

An American journalist discusses life in modern Russia and shares the viewpoints of common citizens…

"The day I arrived in Yakutsk with my colleague Peter Osnos of The Washington Post, it was 46 below. When our plane landed, the door was frozen solidly shut, and it took about half an hour for a powerful hot-air blower- standard equipment at Siberian airports- to break the icy seal. Stepping outside was like stepping onto another planet, for at those low temperatures nothing seems quite normal. The air burns. Sounds are brittle. Every breath hovers in a strangle slow-motion cloud, adding to the mist of ice that pervades the city and blurs the sun. When the breath freezes into ice dust and falls almost silently to the ground, Siberians call it the whisper of stars."

-David K. Shipler, Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

"The day I arrived in Yakutsk with my colleague Peter Osnos of The Washington Post, it was 46 below. When our plane landed, the door was frozen solidly shut, and it took about half an hour for a powerful hot-air blower- standard equipment at Siberian airports- to break the icy seal. Stepping outside was like stepping onto another planet, for at those low temperatures nothing seems quite normal. The air burns. Sounds are brittle. Every breath hovers in a strangle slow-motion cloud, adding to the mist of ice that pervades the city and blurs the sun. When the breath freezes into ice dust and falls almost silently to the ground, Siberians call it the whisper of stars."

-David K. Shipler, Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

If you liked the nonfiction plot in Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams by David K. Shipler , here is a list of 10 books like this:

Cover of The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen

1. The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

By: Masha Gessen

4.19

Format: 515 pages, Hardcover

The essential journalist and bestselling biographer of Vladimir Putin reveals how, in the space of … read more

Similar categories in Masha Gessen's The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia book and David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

  • russia
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • russian history
  • journalism
  • sociology
"...But reason was helpless against demagogy."

-Masha Gessen, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

"[Hannah] Arendt wrote about the subjugation of public space - in effect the disappearance of public space, which, by depriving a person of boundaries and agency, rendered him profoundly lonely."

-Masha Gessen, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

"Some studies actually showed that that Russian drinkers lived longer than non-drinkers. [Michelle Parsons] suggested an explanation for the apparent vodka paradox: for what it is worth, alcohol may h…"

-Masha Gessen, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

"At the time of the October Revolution, the Russian intellectual elite had been both a part and a partner to the European conversation about God, power, and human life. After fifty years of purges, ar…"

-Masha Gessen, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

Cover of Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia by Peter Pomerantsev

2. Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia

By: Peter Pomerantsev

3.97

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

A journey into the glittering, surreal heart of 21st century Russia, where even dictatorship is a r… read more

Similar categories in Peter Pomerantsev's Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia book and David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

  • russia
  • history
  • travel
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • journalism
  • sociology
"We used to have this self-centred idea that Western democracies were the end-point of evolution, and we're dealing from a position of strength, and people are becoming like us. It's not that way. Bec…"

-Peter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia

"So you were dissidents? You believed in finishing the USSR?''No. It's not like that. You just speak several languages at the same time, all the time. There's like several "you"s.' Seen from this pers…"

-Peter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia

"That unique Moscow mix of tackiness and menace. One time I see a poster advertising a new property development that captures the tone nicely. Got up in the style of Nazi propaganda, it shows two Germ…"

-Peter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia

Cover of Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt

3. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

By: Tony Judt

4.37

Format: 933 pages, Paperback

Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of th… read more

Similar categories in Tony Judt's Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 book and David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

  • european history
  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
"Broken eggs make good omelettes. But you cannot build a better society on broken men."

-Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

"Far from addressing the Soviet nationalities question, the Afghan adventure had, as was by now all too clear, exacerbated it. If the USSR faced an intractable set of national minorities, this was in …"

-Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

"The imposition of a Russian rather than a German solution cut Europe’s vulnerable eastern half away from the body of the continent. At the time this was not a matter of great concern to western Europ…"

-Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

"Maastricht had three significant side-effects. One of them was the unforeseen boost it gave to NATO. Under the restrictive terms of the Treaty it was clear (as the French at least had intended) that …"

-Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

Cover of The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 (Abridged) by None, Edward E. Ericson Jr., Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

4. The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 (Abridged)

By: None , Edward E. Ericson Jr. , Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

4.32

Format: 512 pages, Paperback

Drawing on his own incarceration and exile, as well as on evidence from more than 200 fellow prison… read more

Similar categories in None's The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 (Abridged) book and David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

  • politics
  • russia
  • history
  • nonfiction
"To taste the sea, all one needs is one gulp."

-None, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 (Abridged)

"One man who stopped lying could bring down a tyranny."

-None, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 (Abridged)

"Oh, how hard it is to part with power! This one has to understand."

-None, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 (Abridged)

"Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty."

-None, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 (Abridged)

5. The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power

By: Joel Bakan

3.00

Format: None pages, Paperback

The inspiration for the film that won the 2004 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Docum… read more

Similar categories in Joel Bakan's The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power book and David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

Cover of A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan

6. A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

By: Timothy Egan

4.38

Format: 432 pages, Hardcover

A historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the rivetin… read more

Similar categories in Timothy Egan's A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them book and David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
"When hate was on the ballot, especially in the guise of virtue, a majority of voters knew exactly what to do."

-Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

"Stephenson had succeeded with an unusual formula for a mass movement: men were the muscle, women spread the poison, and ministers sanctified it all."

-Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

"The governor of Georgia, Clifford Walker, told a Klan rally in 1924 that the United States should 'build a wall of steel, a wall as high as heaven' against immigrants."

-Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

"There are millions who have never joined, but who think and feel and, when called on, will fight with us," Evans wrote. "This is our real strength, and no one who ignores it can hope to understand Am…"

-Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

Cover of The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier by Ian Urbina

7. The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier

By: Ian Urbina

4.36

Format: 560 pages, Hardcover

There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. But perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are… read more

Similar categories in Ian Urbina's The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier book and David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

  • travel
  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
"Slavery is a harsh reality thatmour better angels would like to think ended two centuries ago, when many countries passed laws against such bondage withing their borders. But this sort of bondage is …"

-Ian Urbina, The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier

"This fantasy that it is possible to fish sustainably, legally, and using workers with contracts, making a living wage, and still deliver a five-ounce can of skipjack tuna for $2.50 that ends up on th…"

-Ian Urbina, The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier

Cover of Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen

8. Nuclear War: A Scenario

By: Annie Jacobsen

4.47

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in … read more

Similar categories in Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War: A Scenario book and David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
"The fundamental idea behind this book is to demonstrate, in appalling detail, just how horrifying nuclear war would be."

-Annie Jacobsen, Nuclear War: A Scenario

"Humans are wired to advance. Humans do whatever it takes. And yet, nuclear war zeros it all out. Nuclear weapons reduce human brilliance and ingenuity, love and desire, empathy and intellect, to ash."

-Annie Jacobsen, Nuclear War: A Scenario

Cover of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber

9. The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

By: David Graeber

4.20

Format: 692 pages, Hardcover

A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions abo… read more

Similar categories in David Graeber's The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity book and David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • sociology
"Humans - from this other perspective, which is just as extreme in its own way - are at best an arbitrary constellation of cultural elements, perhaps assembled according to some prevailing spirit, cod…"

-David Graeber, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

"One might ask, how could that most basic element of all human freedoms, the freedom to make promises and commitments and thus build relationships, be turned into its very opposite: into peonage, serf…"

-David Graeber, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

"There is an obvious objection to evolutionary models which assume that our strongest social ties are based on close biological kinship: many humans just don’t like their families very much. And this …"

-David Graeber, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

"In the Middle Ages, most people in other parts of the world who actually knew anything about northern Europe at all considered it an obscure and uninviting backwater full of religious fanatics who, a…"

-David Graeber, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

Cover of Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman

10. Stalingrad

By: Vasily Grossman

4.28

Format: 1088 pages, Paperback

Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate has been hailed as a twentieth-century War and Peace. However, Life… read more

Similar categories in Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad book and David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

  • russia
"But once, when she was singing his praises, her mother interrupted 'No, no, I've seen too many young people like that - both when I was a student in Petersburg and when I was in exile in Siberia. The…"

-Vasily Grossman, Stalingrad

"There are people who like to ascribe only the basest of motives to the actions of others. This is not always because they act basely themselves; often they would not dream of acting as they suspect o…"

-Vasily Grossman, Stalingrad

Cover of Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia by Joshua Yaffa

11. Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia

By: Joshua Yaffa

4.13

Format: 368 pages, Hardcover

From a leading journalist in Moscow and correspondent for The New Yorker, a groundbreaking portrait… read more

Similar categories in Joshua Yaffa's Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia book and David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

  • russia
  • history
  • travel
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • journalism
  • sociology
"Without a clear moral vision, Meylac thought, all that’s left are careerism and bureaucratic efficiency."

-Joshua Yaffa, Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia

Cover of Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams by David K. Shipler

12. Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

By: David K. Shipler

3.99

Format: 448 pages, Paperback

An American journalist discusses life in modern Russia and shares the viewpoints of common citizens… read more

Similar categories in David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams book and David K. Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

  • russia
  • history
  • travel
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • european history
  • russian history
  • journalism
  • sociology
"The day I arrived in Yakutsk with my colleague Peter Osnos of The Washington Post, it was 46 below. When our plane landed, the door was frozen solidly shut, and it took about half an hour for a power…"

-David K. Shipler, Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams

10 Best history books like Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams by David K. Shipler

Transform Your Habits

The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

Masha Gessen

4.19

Transform Your Habits

Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia

Peter Pomerantsev

3.97

Transform Your Habits

Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

Tony Judt

4.37

Transform Your Habits

The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 (Abridged)

None , Edward E. Ericson Jr. , Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

4.32

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14 best-selling audiobook books like The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber

Transform Your Habits

Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism

Michael Parenti

4.41

Transform Your Habits

If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution

Vincent Bevins

4.28

Transform Your Habits

Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will

Robert M. Sapolsky

4.25

Transform Your Habits

When We Cease to Understand the World

Benjamín Labatut

4.14

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