like Pound, Goethe, Shakespeare, Dante, da Vinci, Wang Wei, et al, Eisenstein absorbed whole lakes of culture and civilization and sweated out diamonds defining the time and times, then and since.More or less denied access to his medium of cinema by Stalin, he took to teaching and writing. Perhaps "Film Form/Film Sense" might be a better place for some to begin (with "Film Sense" being many people's favorites). You can skim or skip over the obligatory references he makes to revolutionary Soviet history without signficiant loss, but his work's still has dynamic today as over 75 years ago.