This study is the first of its kind: a street-level inside account of what Stalinism meant to the masses of ordinary people who lived it. Stephen Kotkin was the first American in 45 years to be allowed into Magnitogorsk, a city built in response to Stalin's decision to transform the predominantly agricultural nation into a "country of metal." With unique access to previously untapped archives and interviews, Kotkin forges a vivid and compelling account of the impact of industrialization on a single urban community. Kotkin argues that Stalinism offered itself as an opportunity for enlightenment. The utopia it proffered, socialism, would be a new civilization based on the repudiation of capitalism. The extent to which the citizenry participated in this scheme and the relationship of the state's ambitions to the dreams of ordinary people form the substance of this fascinating story. Kotkin tells it deftly, with a remarkable understanding of the social and political system, as well as a keen instinct for the details of everyday life. Kotkin depicts a whole range of life: from the blast furnace workers who labored in the enormous iron and steel plant, to the families who struggled with the shortage of housing and services. Thematically organized and closely focused, Magnetic Mountain signals the beginning of a new stage in the writing of Soviet social history.

Summary: In a place where strange things happen all the time, the Magnetic Mountain is a place of magic and wonder. Not just any peak—this one is a natural wonder with magnetic power so strong that it can pull or push anything near it, from the tiniest pebble to the strongest hearts. As the story goes on, Lily, a brave and curious little girl, goes into the unknown with her friends to find out what the secrets are behind this amazing work of art. They start a trip to find out more about themselves and the strong bonds of friendship that hold them together as they learn about the hidden treasures on top of the mountain. They have to be strong because the mountain's magnetic field throws off their compasses as they go through woods, rivers, and up steep peaks. Still, they keep going, each step bringing them closer to the mountain's core and the secrets it holds. Their strong friendship and insatiable curiosity drive them on. At the base of Magnetic Mountain, they find a cave that goes deep underground and has an opening filled with minerals that give off an ethereal glow. Oliver, the clever old owl guardian of the mountain, leads them to find the magical magnetite stone that makes the mountain magnetic. Oliver gives them a challenge: to get to the top of the mountain, they have to complete three tests that are meant to see how brave, smart, and friendly they are. They show how brave, smart, and bonded they are by walking a trail while blinded, crossing a narrow bridge over a steep gorge, and figuring out a puzzle involving the placement of magnetic stones. They learn important things about themselves and what friendship really means through these experiences, which also help them reach their goal. When they reach the top of the mountain, they are rewarded with views of the beautiful magnetite stone. Pieces of the stone are given to them as a reminder of their victory, their trip, and the hard times they have been through. When they get back to their hamlet, they tell everyone about their amazing journey. Their bravery and knowledge serve as an example for others. There is no end to the stories that Lily and her friends tell about their journey to the Magnetic Mountain. They show how powerful friendship, curiosity, bravery, and knowledge can be. People who hear it are drawn into the story and want to go on adventures and explore and discover new things. Chapter 1: What They Found Lily was a brave and curious girl who lived in the middle of Willow Creek, a lush, green town where every house seemed to hide a story from the past. On a rainy afternoon, Lily chose to check out her grandmother's attic. The raindrops were making a soothing sound on the windows and roofs. The attic was full of old trunks, worn-out books, and jewels that had been forgotten for a long time. She carefully opened a wooden trunk that was shaking, and as she did so, she saw something strangely sparkling: an old, faded map that looked like it could lead her on journeys. This wasn't just any map; it had been carefully made, with tiny details and symbols that seemed to move around on the page. Lily was especially interested in a drawing of a certain kind of mountain that was marked with a magnet and was on what the map called "the edge of the world." Looking at this picture made Lily's heart race with excitement. She had heard that the Magnetic Mountain was an amazing place where nature's forces behaved in strange ways, using their unseen power to pull and push things and even people. You could compare finding the map to finding the key that opens a locked door that hides secrets. Lily had a lot of ideas and questions about the Magnetic Mountain in her head. Why did a magnet mark it? What secrets did it hide? She liked going into the unknown because it made her feel brave, and she knew that Max and Sara would be great company on their trip. Max was known for being brave and wanting to see new things. Sara was a great trip companion because she could notice a lot of things and loved puzzles. As Lily told them about what she had found, she showed them the map and the interesting mountain. Their eyes shone with excitement and wonder as they thought about the exciting journey that lay ahead of them. The mountain was said to have a magnetic pull on them, but they were also pulled to it by the thrill of discovery and the chance that an experience there would make their friendship stronger. The trip to Magnetic Mountain was being planned by Sara, Max, and Lily. They talked about what gear they would need, different routes, and problems that might come up. As their excitement grew, long stories about the kids hiking into unknown territory spread through Willow Creek. The map, which was hidden and forgotten in a closet, made them want to go on an adventure. That piece of paper wasn't just any old piece of paper; it was a key to a world full of secrets and surprises waiting to be found. Lily held the map like a prize as they got ready to leave. It was a guide that would show them places and help them make memories that would last a lifetime. The trip to Magnetic Mountain was about more than just getting there. It was also about regaining the fun of adventure, the strength of friendship, and the courage to go where no one has gone before.

An extraordinary collection of mountain writing, spanning five continents, 2,500 years, and numerous genres - including poetry, myth, folktale, and short story.

»A Tale of the Ragged Mountains« is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, originally published in 1844. EDGAR ALLAN POE was born in Boston in 1809. After brief stints in academia and the military, he began working as a literary critic and author. He made his debut with the novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket in 1838, but it was in his short stories that Poe's peculiar style truly flourished. He died in Baltimore in 1849.

A New York Times best summer travel book recommendation A nonfiction debut about an American’s solo, month-long, 400-mile walk from Lake Geneva to Nice. In the summer of 2015, Jonathan Arlan was nearing thirty. Restless, bored, and daydreaming of adventure, he comes across an image on the Internet one day: a map of the southeast corner of France with a single red line snaking south from Lake Geneva, through the jagged brown and white peaks of the Alps to the Mediterranean sea—a route more than four hundred miles long. He decides then and there to walk the whole trail solo. Lacking any outdoor experience, completely ignorant of mountains, sorely out of shape, and fighting last-minute nerves and bad weather, things get off to a rocky start. But Arlan eventually finds his mountain legs—along with a staggering variety of aches and pains—as he tramps a narrow thread of grass, dirt, and rock between cloud-collared, ice-capped peaks in the High Alps, through ancient hamlets built into hillsides, across sheep-dotted mountain pastures, and over countless cols on his way to the sea. In time, this simple, repetitive act of walking for hours each day in the remote beauty of the mountains becomes as exhilarating as it is exhausting. Mountain Lines is the stirring account of a month-long journey on foot through the French Alps and a passionate and intimate book laced with humor, wonder, and curiosity. In the tradition of trekking classics like A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, The Snow Leopard, and Tracks, the book is a meditation on movement, solitude, adventure, and the magnetic power of the natural world.

No one, not even Mikhail Gorbachev, anticipated what was in store when the Soviet Union embarked in the 1980s on a radical course of long-overdue structural reform. The consequences of that momentous decision, which set in motion a transformation eventually affecting the entire postwar world order, are here chronicled from inside a previously forbidden Soviet city, Magnitogorsk. Built under Stalin and championed by him as a showcase of socialism, the city remained closed to Western scrutiny until four years ago, when Stephen Kotkin became the first American to live there in nearly half a century. An uncommonly perceptive observer, a gifted writer, and a first-rate social scientist, Kotkin offers the reader an unsurpassed portrait of daily life in the Gorbachev era. From the formation of "informal" political groups to the start-up of fledgling businesses in the new cooperative sector, from the no-holds-barred investigative reporting of a former Communist party mouthpiece to a freewheeling multicandidate election campaign, the author conveys the texture of contemporary Soviet society in the throes of an upheaval not seen since the 1930s. Magnitogorsk, a planned "garden city" in the Ural Mountains, serves as Kotkin's laboratory for observing the revolutionary changes occurring in the Soviet Union today. Dominated by a self-perpetuating Communist party machine, choked by industrial pollution, and haunted by a suppressed past, this once-proud city now faces an uncertain future, as do the more than one thousand other industrial cities throughout the Soviet Union. Kotkin made his remarkable first visit in 1987 and returned in 1989. On both occasions, steelworkers and schoolteachers, bus drivers and housewives, intellectuals and former victims of oppression—all willingly stepped forward to voice long-suppressed grievances and aspirations. Their words animate this moving narrative, the first to examine the impact and contradictions of perestroika in a single community. Like no other Soviet city, Magnitogorsk provides a window onto the desperate struggle to overcome the heavy burden of Stalin's legacy.