As the title indicates, this book refers to a very particular portion of the publishing world.  Compton claims 1917-1934 "comprise the greatest inventiveness in book design," and goes on to explain they "they are also years when creation in all fields, including the arts, enshrined the hope for a better life in a country which, compared to the United States and Western Europe, remained backward in spite of modernization at the beginning of the century" (9). Avant-garde artists (writers, visual artists, architects) were leaders of the Utopian movement, and were part of the national movement striving for high literacy.  The texts and their covers both strove to embrace a newfound freedom and compel others to action.  The variety of techniques for designing book covers was broad - lithography, rubber stamps, wall-paper, hand-colouring - and reflected the freedom artists were experiencing for the first time.  Though the aesthetic varied among books, one thing remained the same: virtually all covers were politically charged and influenced.