


Behind the Urals
G**L
Good book, horrible edition by Pathfinder Book
This is a fascinating book recommended by the YouTube Channel Ushanka Show. It chronicles the experiences of an American welder in the Soviet city of Magnitogorsk in the 1030s.John Scott left college in an America where there were no jobs for thousands of men during the Great Depression. He decided to go to the Soviet Union and see how thing were over there. They had plenty of jobs available. He trained as a welder in upstate NY so that he would have a trade when he arrived in Russia. He became a worker and this book is his experience. Things weren't as great as he had hoped and he eventually returned to the US after 8 years and became a journalist.This copy of the book bears the imprint of A Pathfinder Book Reprint Edition. The typos and errors are astounding and I have only read the first 33 pages. I'm no grammar police as I'm sure you can tell from this review, but the errors in numbers are distressing and the strange, random insertions of numbers and punctuation marks are distracting (see photos attached to this review).The proofreader can't seem to decide if the correct term is "red corner" or red comer". As you can see, they use both on the same page and it alternates throughout the book. We are told a man had been a party member since 1028 and that one of the teachers in the school was changed 4 times in the 1938-34 school year. Clearly none of the numbers are reliable which is really annoying and makes this edition of the book totally untrustworthy.I conclusion, the book is great, but try and find a different edition to buy.
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