Modernization from the Other Shore by David Engerman

Modernization from the Other Shore by David Engerman – American Intellectuals and the Romance of Russian Development – is an interesting book, written nicely which might appeal to a wider range of people and not just people in academia. I think the book would have benefited from a slightly shorter time frame and more focus. He could have been more forceful in his conclusions, from my point of view.

This book analyses American experts on russia, from late 19th century until the start of WWII. He looks at the reason why these people excused the terrible cost of human lives. He talks about modernisation, as russia was industrialising fast, and he looks at diplomats, intelligentsia, and journalists.

His point of view is that the Americans saw russia in terms of stereotypes (passivity, backwardness, and fatalism). While I don’t think that is wrong, I think it’s a bit easy to explain by focusing only on xenophobia and stereotypes and not consider the lack of empathy, and thus the lack of real moral values. Engerman’s approach is common in academia though. If you are curious, get the book and read it, see if you are convinced by the arguments.

Modernization from the Other Shore by David Engerman

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My rating: 4/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: yes
Published by: Harvard University Press
Year it was published: 2004
Format: Hardcover
Genre(s): History
Pages: 410

About the author: David C. Engerman is a scholar of twentieth-century international history. Building on his dual training in American and Russian/Soviet history at the University of California-Berkeley (where he received his Ph.D. in 1998), he wrote two books on the place of Russia and the USSR in American intellectual and political life: Modernization from the Other Shore: American Intellectuals and the Romance of Russian Development (Harvard UP, 2003) and Know Your Enemy: The Rise and Fall of America’s Soviet Experts (Oxford UP, 2009).
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