Episode · Conversations with Tyler · 2026-08-05
Tyler Cowen & Julia Ioffe: books mentioned on Conversations with Tyler
Julia Ioffe on Russian Women, Missing Men, and the Roots of Autocracy
Julia Ioffe left the USSR as a child and came back as an adult journalist to find that the confident, credentialed women she remembered from her Soviet childhood had largely been supplanted by those chasing marriage and domesticity instead.
Tyler Cowen discussed Motherland by Julia Ioffe. Julia Ioffe recommended Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina and others, Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich, The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich, and Mary by Vladimir Nabokov.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Motherland
Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia from Revolution to Autocracy by Julia Ioffe is an expansive historical non-fiction work that traces the complex political and social evolution of Russia through the lens of its women and leadership.
Discussed“Most of all, we’ll be talking about her recent book coming out in paperback. It is called Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia from Revolution to Autocracy.”
Where to get it
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Zuleikha
Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina is a sweeping historical novel that examines the dramatic and often harrowing transformation of rural life in the Soviet Union during the early twentieth century.
Recommended“The first I would recommend is Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina. It’s a novel about a Tatar woman in the 1920s and ’30s when her village is collectivized and people are forced into collective farms.”
Where to get it
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Secondhand Time
Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich is a powerful oral history composed of harrowing interviews that capture the psychological fallout of the Soviet Union's collapse on ordinary citizens.
Recommended“The book Secondhand Time completely turned my head around and made me realize that I had been writing about Russia all wrong.”
Where to get it
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The Unwomanly Face of War
The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich is a powerful non-fiction book that captures the forgotten and often overlooked experiences of Soviet women who served on the front lines during World War II.
Recommended“I would specifically recommend her book The Unwomanly Face of War, which is about these teenage Soviet girls joining the fight in World War II as machine gunners, as fighter pilots, as paratroopers.”
Where to get it
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Mary
Mary by Vladimir Nabokov is the author's debut novel, exploring themes of nostalgia, lost youth, and the bittersweet memories of first love among Russian émigrés in Berlin.
Recommended“Then, the third that I would recommend is Mary by Vladimir Nabokov. It’s a book I’ve been discussing a lot with my friends from Russia, so many of whom are in exile and who miss home and want to go home.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“Before my last question, just to plug your book again, which I enjoyed very much, Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy, coming in paperback.”