Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, he offers up an appropriately complex and rich portrait.

The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails presents an in-depth exploration of the world of spirits and cocktails in a ground-breaking synthesis. The Companion covers drinks, processes, and techniques around the world as well as those in the US and Europe. It provides clear explanations of the different ways that spirits are produced, including fermentation, distillation and ageing, alongside a wealth of new detail on the emergence of cocktails and cocktails bars, including entries on key cocktails and influential mixologists and cocktail bars.

Ingredients of Change explores modern Bulgaria's foodways from the Ottoman era to the present, outlining how Bulgarians domesticated and adapted diverse local, regional, and global foods and techniques, and how the nation's culinary topography has been continually reshaped by the imperial legacies of the Ottomans, Habsburgs, Russians, and Soviets, as well as by the ingenuity of its own people. Changes in Bulgarian cooking and cuisine, Mary C. Neuburger shows, were driven less by nationalism than by the circulation of powerful food narratives—scientific, religious, and ethical—along with peoples, goods, technologies, and politics. Ingredients of Change tells this complex story through thematic chapters focused on bread, meat, milk and yogurt, wine, and the foundational vegetables of Bulgarian cuisine—tomatoes and peppers. Neuburger traces the ways in which these ingredients were introduced and transformed in the Bulgarian diet over time, often in the context of Bulgaria's tumultuous political history. She shows how the country's modern dietary and culinary transformations accelerated under a communist dictatorship that had the resources and will to fundamentally reshape what and how people ate and drank.

An interesting resource for learning about the cultural differences and characteristics of people across the globe, this encyclopedia covers the "do's" and "don'ts" of a breadth of countries and major ethnic groups. Readers of this one-volume reference will gain useful knowledge of what travelers should and shouldn't do when in countries outside of the United States. After a general introduction, approximately 100 alphabetically arranged entries cover topics such as greeting and meeting, appearance and dress, table manners, body language, social situations and hospitality, verbal communications, business etiquette, religious etiquette, gift-giving, and even "netiquette" regarding social media. Sidebars and images throughout make the text more accessible and engaging, and additional readings at the end of each entry as well as the bibliography offer opportunities for further research on the subject. The content also directly supports the National Geography Standards and the AP Human Geography curriculum for high school students as they learn about the cultural differences and characteristics of people in major ethnic groups across the globe.

Military novel with horror elements in the background of Siamese twins.

This is a study of the social, economic, and political role of Vodka in nineteenth-century Russia. Since the `Green Serpent' first appeared in sixteenth-century Muscovy, it has played a vital part in Russian life. Vodka became an essential part of Russian working-class celebrations: personal, religious, and commercial. Trade in Vodka redistributed wealth upwards through Russian society over several centuries. Indeed, Russia's status as a great power was underpinned by it: by the nineteenth century, it generated one-third of government revenue - enough to cover most of the costs of the vast army. The dependence on Vodka of both people and state has endured into the Gorbachev era. But despite Vodka's key role in Russian history, and the complex network of corruption associated with it, the subject has been ignored by most historians until now. This study concentrates on an important transitional era in the history of Vodka: the early nineteenth century. During this period, Vodka taxes played the role that salt taxes had played in the ancien r--eacute--;gime in France. The abolition of the tax farm in 1863 should be seen as one of the most important of the `Great Reforms' of the 1860s, an era which, in many ways, parallels the glasnost of the 1980s.

In March 1964 the Dutch journalist Willem Oltmans (1925–2004) encountered Marguerite Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald's mother, at JFK International Airport. In April 1977, he found himself testifying before the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). In the thirteen years between these two events, Oltmans conducted his own investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy—an undertaking that would bring him into contact with a host of individuals with prominent roles in the case, most notably George de Mohrenschildt (1911–1977), whose involvement with Oswald and whose own untimely death remain mysteries to this day. Reporting on the Kennedy Assassination is Oltmans's account of his investigation, published here for the first time in English. Combining personal memoir and factual reporting, the book chronicles the journalist's interviews with figures such as Jim Garrison and Cyril Wecht, his long and complicated friendship with de Mohrenschildt and his wife, and his own whirlwind experience in the media spotlight. Most saliently, Reporting on the Kennedy Assassination offers an intimate look at Oltmans's collaboration with de Mohrenschildt on the book that would later become Lee Harvey Oswald as I Knew Him, and at the circumstances surrounding de Mohrenschildt's death and his possible implication in Oswald's actions. Systematically annotated and fact-checked, with an insightful introduction from editor Michael Rinella and a wealth of rare photographs and letters, this book provides a fascinating portrait of one of the twentieth century's most controversial journalists even as it completes a critical chapter in the investigation of the Kennedy assassination.

Deeba first left Afghanistan in 2002, fleeing a war torn country and an abusive husband shortly after she was captured by the Taliban and nearly sold to an Arab Shaikh narrowly escaping due to a small twist of fate. In June 2021, Deeba returned to visit family in Kabul to organize the engagement of her son. Regardless of the Taliban's progress she felt safe to travel after reassurances from the Aghan and US Government's that the Taliban would not be able to take major cities. One morning, to her surprise, she awoke to the news that President Ghani had escaped and Kabul was in the hands of the Taliban, what ensued was a desperate rush to leave the city to return to the USA enduring bomb blasts and crushing crowds at the airport. This is a harrowing account of one woman caught in the US withdrawal of Kabul giving a first hand account of what it was like to be a civilian caught up in the chaos as well as giving an invaluable insight in to the life of a woman in Afghanistan.

Satan comes to Soviet Moscow in this critically acclaimed translation of one of the most important and best-loved modern classics in world literature. The Master and Margarita has been captivating readers around the world ever since its first publication in 1967. Written during Stalin’s time in power but suppressed in the Soviet Union for decades, Bulgakov’s masterpiece is an ironic parable on power and its corruption, on good and evil, and on human frailty and the strength of love. In The Master and Margarita, the Devil himself pays a visit to Soviet Moscow. Accompanied by a retinue that includes the fast-talking, vodka-drinking, giant tomcat Behemoth, he sets about creating a whirlwind of chaos that soon involves the beautiful Margarita and her beloved, a distraught writer known only as the Master, and even Jesus Christ and Pontius Pilate. The Master and Margarita combines fable, fantasy, political satire, and slapstick comedy to create a wildly entertaining and unforgettable tale that is commonly considered the greatest novel to come out of the Soviet Union. It appears in this edition in a translation by Mirra Ginsburg that was judged “brilliant” by Publishers Weekly. Praise for The Master and Margarita “A wild surrealistic romp. . . . Brilliantly flamboyant and outrageous.” —Joyce Carol Oates, The Detroit News “Fine, funny, imaginative. . . . The Master and Margarita stands squarely in the great Gogolesque tradition of satiric narrative.” —Saul Maloff, Newsweek “A rich, funny, moving and bitter novel. . . . Vast and boisterous entertainment.” —The New York Times “The book is by turns hilarious, mysterious, contemplative and poignant. . . . A great work.” —Chicago Tribune “Funny, devilish, brilliant satire. . . . It’s literature of the highest order and . . . it will deliver a full measure of enjoyment and enlightenment.” —Publishers Weekly

Russia is famous for its vodka, and its culture of extreme intoxication. But just as vodka is central to the lives of many Russians, it is also central to understanding Russian history and politics. In Vodka Politics, Mark Lawrence Schrad argues that debilitating societal alcoholism is not hard-wired into Russians' genetic code, but rather their autocratic political system, which has long wielded vodka as a tool of statecraft. Through a series of historical investigations stretching from Ivan the Terrible through Vladimir Putin, Vodka Politics presents the secret history of the Russian state itself-a history that is drenched in liquor. Scrutinizing (rather than dismissing) the role of alcohol in Russian politics yields a more nuanced understanding of Russian history itself: from palace intrigues under the tsars to the drunken antics of Soviet and post-Soviet leadership, vodka is there in abundance. Beyond vivid anecdotes, Schrad scours original documents and archival evidence to answer provocative historical questions. How have Russia's rulers used alcohol to solidify their autocratic rule? What role did alcohol play in tsarist coups? Was Nicholas II's ill-fated prohibition a catalyst for the Bolshevik Revolution? Could the Soviet Union have become a world power without liquor? How did vodka politics contribute to the collapse of both communism and public health in the 1990s? How can the Kremlin overcome vodka's hurdles to produce greater social well-being, prosperity, and democracy into the future? Viewing Russian history through the bottom of the vodka bottle helps us to understand why the "liquor question" remains important to Russian high politics even today-almost a century after the issue had been put to bed in most every other modern state. Indeed, recognizing and confronting vodka's devastating political legacies may be the greatest political challenge for this generation of Russia's leadership, as well as the next.