Soviet adventures in the land of the capitalists: Ilf and Petrov's American road trip

Part I. Promised lands. Amerikanizm

Alienism and radicalism

Pernicious propaganda

Two Russian gentlemen

Part II. New York and the Eastern states. Extraordinary adventures in the land of the capitalists

Photographing New York

Dos

The business of pleasure

Black New York

Complex hybrids

Squaring the circle

The apex of middlebrow culture

Part III. To the Pacific Ocean. The road

Frozen meat, salty butter, and other American delicacies

The nationalities question

A laboratory of anthropology

New Mexico moderns

Can you kid a kidder?

The man in the red shirt

Natural wonders and technical marvels

The American Dneprostroi

Part IV. The golden state. Irrational presuppositions

The Soviet colony in Carmel

Friends of the Soviet Union

Nothing could be more Hollywoody

Part V. Journey's end. Racism and democracy

Anxious life

Coda.