Lisa Kirschenbaum is an award-winning author whose research explores how individuals navigated the traumas of the twentieth century. Her books include Small Comrades: Revolutionizing Childhood in Soviet Russia, 1917-1932 (2000); The Legacy of the Siege of Leningrad, 1941-1995 (2006); and International Communism and the Spanish Civil War (2015).

Introduction; Part I. Promised Lands: 1. Amerikanizm; 2. Alienism and radicalism; 3. Pernicious propaganda; 4. Two Russian gentlemen; Part II. New York and the Eastern States: 5. Extraordinary adventures in the land of the capitalists; 6. Photographing New York; 7. Dos; 8. The business of pleasure; 9. Black New York; 10. Complex hybrids; 11. Squaring the circle; 12. The apex of middlebrow culture; Part III. To the Pacific Ocean: 13. The road; 14. Frozen meat, salty butter, and other American delicacies; 15. The nationalities question; 16. A laboratory of anthropology; 17. New Mexico moderns; 18. Can you kid a kidder?; 19. The man in the red shirt; 20. Natural wonders and technical marvels; 21. The American dneprostroi; Part IV. The Golden State: 22. Irrational presuppositions; 23. The soviet colony in Carmel; 24. Friends of the soviet union; 25. Nothing could be more hollywoody; Part V. Journey's End: 26. Racism and democracy; 27. Anxious life; 28. Coda.