Word: billington
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...their century-long debate with the Slavophiles. Government ministers and parliamentarians constantly refer to the way the Dutch milk cows, the Americans collect taxes and the Germans dispose of garbage, as if Western practice is the standard by which everything must now be judged. As cultural historian James Billington notes in his book The Icon and the Axe, "Repeatedly, Russians have sought to acquire the end products of other civilizations without the intervening process of slow growth and inner understanding...
Outspoken American advocates of greater efforts look back at the days when the U.S. had the stomach and pocketbook for big initiatives like the Marshall Plan and contrast that with the cheese-paring, tentative leadership Washington is providing now. James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, says that by overthrowing communism, "the Russians have done something big and heroic. They perceive us as, in effect, not responding except in petty ways. Our response has so far been hesitant in tone, trivial in content and very nearly humiliating in its effect." As one dramatic signal, Billington favors an exchange program that would...
...library went along with the deception, said Brown, because it got a 15% cut of the awards from the Pentagon. That amounted to $12.6 million in income for the library last year on $84 million in DOD contracts. Librarian of Congress James Billington, who ordered an internal investigation of the suspect contracts, directed that they be either canceled or transferred to the Pentagon...
...Librarian of Congress, James Billington, a historian of Russian culture who speaks the language, probed for a glimpse of the underlying vision that Gorbachev might hold. How would the Soviet government, he asked, officially commemorate the millennium of Christianity in Russia next year? Gorbachev deftly avoided the question by indicating that his nation's ecclesiastical authorities were making the preparations. How "Russian" was the man? wondered Billington; then he queried him about Soviet writers. Gorbachev's reading was current, and included the so-called village writers, who have deplored the loss of rural values in Russia...
Congressman Dick Cheney asked what Gorbachev wanted his country to be in 20 years. He hoped, Gorbachev replied, to see a society more dynamic, more open and more democratic. Billington made a mental note that the translation was more appealing than the original Russian...