f7d9395c_atings_and_reviews___Gwern_net__Review
[Title] Red Plenty: Inside the Fifties’ Soviet Dream [Author] Francis Spufford [Rating] ★★★★ [Year] 2010 [Read] 2012/06/02 [Review] 
Comparable to Dos Passos’s USA or Schulz’s Radiance, if that helps. Depicts how Russia fell into the middle-income trap and stagnated, and illuminates the early growth of Russia’s industrialization and why Khrushchev thought Russia could bury the US (not in dirt, but manufactured goods). Elegiac, enlightening, sympathetic. Further reading: - In Soviet Union, Optimization Problem Solves You, Cosma Shalizi (discussion) - “The Myth of Asia’s Miracle”, Paul Krugman
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