Description
Book SynopsisMikhail Epstein is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Cultural Theory and Russian Literature at Emory University, USA, and former Professor of Russian and Cultural Theory at Durham University, UK. He has authored 30 books (in English and Russian), including
The Transformative Humanities (Bloomsbury, 2012), and approximately 600 essays and articles, translated into 16 languages. Professor Epstein has won national and international awards, including The Andrei Bely Prize (S.-Petersburg, 1991) and the Liberty Prize, awarded annually for the outstanding contribution to the development of Russian - U.S. cultural relations (New York, 2000).
Trade ReviewFew books could be a better, more incisive and captivating guide to the intellectual richness of an important historical period than Mikhail Epstein’s history of Russian thought in the late Soviet period ... a treasure-trove of discovery, opening up a vault of riches that is vast and multi-leveled. * Slavic Review *
The Phoenix of Philosophy benefits from its author’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the many philosophical tendencies and the individual philosophers he describes. He is brilliant at summarising their ideas ... Epstein’s work is a great achievement * Marx and Philosophy Review of Books *
Both a provocative analytical study and a philosophical dictionary of sorts, the book is absorbing and extremely valuable and should hopefully reach a large—and not just Slavic—audience. * Slavic and East European Journal *
[T]his is a very helpful and stimulating work. * Slavonic & East European Review *
Bold, comprehensive, and beautifully written, this book retrieves one of the best-forgotten parts of global intellectual history. While the lives of leading Soviet thinkers were tragic, Mikhail Epstein presents their philosophy as liberating: a sublime lesson of hope and resistance for our time. * Alexander Etkind, Professor of History of Russia-Europe Relations, European University at Florence, Italy *
An impressive work of synthesis, this book offers a fascinating panorama of Soviet intellectual life in the second half of the 20th century. Epstein writes with clarity and conviction that stem from his knowledge and immediate experience of the times he revisits in these often riveting pages. * Galin Tihanov, George Steiner Professor of Comparative Literature, Queen Mary University of London, UK *
This beautifully written book by one of our most eminent scholars of Russian culture confirms that even in the most inhospitable circumstances, such as Soviet ideocracy, Russian thought flourishes and liberates. It is a brilliant testimony to the power of ideas and of the human spirit. * Randall A. Poole, Professor of History, College of St. Scholastica, USA *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Part 1. Vicissitudes of Soviet Marxism Part 2. Neo-rationalism. Structuralism. General methodology Part 3. The philosophy of personality and of freedom Part 4. Culturology, or, the philosophy of culture Conclusion Works cited Appendix: Original Russian and other foreign-language titles Name index Subject index
