{"product_id":"its-only-a-joke-comrade-humour-trust-and-everyday-life-under-stalin-1928-1941-paperback","title":"It's Only A Joke, Comrade!: Humour, Trust and Everyday Life under Stalin (1928-1941) - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJamie C. Johnstone\u003c\/b\u003e (Illustrator), \u003cb\u003eJonathan Waterlow\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A stunningly original study of Stalinist society... Essential reading for anyone interested in how human beings navigate a path through times of extraordinary upheaval, privation and danger'\u003c\/b\u003e - Daniel Beer \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the shadow of the Gulag, Soviet citizens were still cracking jokes. They had to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Drawing on diaries, interviews, memoirs and hundreds of previously secret documents, \u003ci\u003eIt's Only a Joke, Comrade \u003c\/i\u003e uncovers how they joked, coped, and struggled to adapt in Stalin's brave new world. It asks what it really means to live under a dictatorship: How do people make sense of their lives? How do they talk about it? And whom can they trust to do so?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Moving beyond ideas of 'resistance', 'doublethink', 'speaking Bolshevik', or Stalin's Cult of Personality to explain Soviet life, it reveals how ordinary people found their way and even found themselves in a life lived along the fault-lines between rhetoric and reality.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003e'An extraordinary achievement'\u003c\/b\u003e - Ronald Grigor Suny\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003e'Re-vitalizes our understanding of Soviet society'\u003c\/b\u003e - Lynne Viola\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003e'Fascinating ... lively, engaging, and at times very funny'\u003c\/b\u003e - Catriona Kelly\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003e'The best book on Stalinism I've read in a long time'\u003c\/b\u003e - S.A. Smith\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003e'One of those rare books that not only has to be read by scholars in the field, but is also accessible to a wide readership. Indeed it is an essential read for anybody who wants to get beyond standard views of the \"communist joke\" and understand what humour really tells us about life under this extraordinary regime'\u003c\/b\u003e - David Priestland\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eJonathan Waterlow received his PhD (DPhil) from the University of Oxford in 2012. He went on to hold a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at St Antony's College, Oxford, and was a Research Associate at the University of Bristol from 2016-18. He's also been a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto, and studied at the Universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews, and the Herzen State Pedagogical University in St Petersburg, Russia. He's a founder at Voices in the Dark (voicesinthedark.world), where he writes and podcasts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 308\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.64 x 9.02 x 5.98 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 13, 2018\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51794823119136,"sku":"9781985635821","price":29.68,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/20f41373d23cca48146c98167c03d409.webp?v=1780734977","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/its-only-a-joke-comrade-humour-trust-and-everyday-life-under-stalin-1928-1941-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}