Trotsky biography amazon

Next set of slides. Review Thick and intensely researched but a pleasure to read, it should remain the definitive work for some time This is a thoughtful, rewarding and essential contribution to 20th-century history. It is compelling as an adventure story--the ultimate rise and fall--but also revelatory as the scholarly revision of a historical reputation The portrait of Trotsky's forgotten world of Jewish farmers and poverty-stricken Russian aristocrats is eccentric and intriguing.

Trotsky himself hid much of his background that Service reveals for the first time At the end of Service's revision, what remains of the Prophet? The intellectual, orator, manager of the Bolshevik coup and architect of the Civil War victory remain, but alongside them must be laid the mendacity of his memoirs, the ugly egotism and unpleasant, overweening arrogance, the belief in and enthusiastic practice of killing on a colossal scale, the political ineptitude, the limit of ambition.

Apart from their famous row about 'socialism in one country' versus international revolution, there was little politically between Stalin and Trotsky. It was personality that divided them and both personalities were highly unattractive. If Trotsky had become dictator, Service is clear that while Russia would have avoided Stalin's personal sadism, the same millions would still have been killed.

Simon Sebag MontefioreSunday TelegraphIn this astonishingly comprehensive book--Robert Service has trawled almost every archive on the planet that has any reference to Trotsky--we get a clear picture of Trotsky's political development, his part in the revolution, his differences with Lenin, his break with Stalin and, finally, the years of exile and agitation in which he attracted a ragbag of bizarre followers and made the mistake of professing that there was a form of communism different to Stalin's This is a superb work of scholarship, and above all leaves the reader in no doubt as to the evil of Trotsky, not just in politics but in his personal life If you seek to know about this crucial figure in the history of Marxism-Leninism, this book will tell you everything.

Simon HefferDaily TelegraphIf only, his adherents argued, it had been Trotsky who had succeeded Lenin and not Stalin, then the USSR might have been spared its famines and its terrors, its show trials and its denials of freedom Now, 50 years after the last full-scale biography of Trotsky in English, Robert Service has turned his attention to this myth--and has, effectively, assassinated Trotsky all over again If one can imagine the most obnoxious middle-class student radical one has ever met--bitter, sneering, arrogant, selfish, cocky, callous, callow, blinkered and condescending--and if one freezes that image, applies a pair of pince-nez and transports it back to the beginning of the last century, then one has Trotsky Service makes it absolutely plain that Trotskyism was Stalinism in embryo Seldom has the pathology of the revolutionary type, and its murderous consequences, been more mercilessly exposed than in this exemplary biography.

Robert HarrisSunday TimesDistinguishing the work is its extensive use of archival sources and rare contemporary published materials, much of it used for the first time in this biography. Service casts a critical eye on Trotsky's own writings and the interpretations of his followers and finds Trotsky's diagnosis of his defeat by Stalin self-serving and misleading Service succeeds in recovering many of the aspects of Trotsky's life that the revolutionary and his followers tried to bury A readable and persuasive biography that should be required reading for students of the Soviet Union and the history of world communism.

Sean PollockLibrary Journal starred review The idea that a humane communism could have come out of Trotskyism is pure romanticism, Service says. Yet, Trotskyites maintain even today that the tragedy of Soviet history lay in Trotsky's failure to win the battle of succession for leadership of the Soviet Union. Service's biography will not convince them otherwise.

But for those with an open mind, Trotsky: A Biography shows that in the end, Stalin and Trotsky were blood brothers. Blood being the operative word. Christopher OrletAmerican SpectatorRobert Service fashions a vivid portrait of this brilliant, merciless ideologue, who did not hesitate to drag his country kicking, screaming and bleeding toward the utopia he dreamed of creating for it He has also mined a rich lode of newly accessible archival material, including documents that reveal Trotsky's support for cruel methods while Lenin was still actively leading the government More than anything else, Service compels us to look at Trotsky as he really was rather than to accept the image that Trotsky conjured for himself.

Joshua RubensteinWall Street JournalTrotsky helps explain both the allure and the danger of the mass murderer who was affectionately known to his followers as 'the Old Man. Service, who has also written studies of Lenin and Stalin, does an excellent job of dispensing with such notions Service's book, unlike much writing about Trotsky, is the work of a historian, not an ideologue, and the better for it.

New YorkerRobert Service's iconoclastic yet rigorously balanced portrait of the fiery intellectual who helped Lenin cement Bolshevik power in Russia strips away the elaborate myths and lies that have buttressed Trotsky's place in the pantheon of revolutionary martyrs. Using new archival resources--including family letters, party and military correspondence, confidential notes, and, perhaps most interesting of all, medical records--Service gives us a keen understanding of the character and intellect, peccadilloes and virtues of one of the key, yet wildly misunderstood figures in 20th century history With his impressive book, Service completes his trilogy of the giants--Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky--who fashioned the Soviet trotsky biography amazon. There is no facet of Trotsky's life that hasn't been examined in detail, from his character and finances to his quarrels with party comrades over the minutiae of Communist dogma and his struggle with his Jewish roots.

Encyclopedic is the word, and it is oh, so well written. Michael J. BonafieldMinneapolis Star TribuneTrotsky is fascinating, detailed, highly intelligent, and meticulously researched Service is among the very best living historians of the Soviet Union and Russia, and he is supremely good at stitching together the trotsky biography amazon outlines of complex lives and developments.

Peter SavodnikCommentaryService never lets his reader forget Trotsky's callousness, and rightly so: on the few occasions that Trotsky worked in conjunction with Stalin--suppressing the Orthodox Church, deporting dissident intellectuals--he equalled or even exceeded the Georgian in ruthlessness. Some of the worst aspects of the Soviet system, such as the use of military force to exterminate rebellious starving peasants, or the exploitation of concentration camp inmates for hard labour, were devised by Trotsky Trotsky is the final part of a triptych, and you can sense the author's enjoyment as he completes his heroic task.

Donald RayfieldTimes Literary SupplementIn a sober narrative thick with political details, both fresh and familiar, Service deflates the notion that the Old Man offered either a humane or plausible alternative to his unlamented comrades. The only major difference between Trotsky and his fellow Bolshevik leaders was that he never got the chance to wield total power Service is the first major biographer of Trotsky to portray him as myopic villain instead of defeated prophet.

Michael KazinThe Daily BeastTrotsky, the Bolshevik most powerfully associated with persisting hopes of global transformation, has had many biographers including the classic trilogy by Isaac Deutscher. Robert Service, less admiring by far, has uncovered a trotsky biography amazon of new information, some of which makes for a pretty unattractive view of the man.

Trotsky: A Biography is sparkling on his political and personal travails, and indeed his crimes and follies. Stephen HoweThe IndependentA massive study of Trotsky, a grotesque character, politically and personally, even by the demanding standards of communism. Joseph C. GouldenWashington TimesIn account, he is a figure more of fascination than admiration--quite in contrast to earlier biographies written by his devotees.

He is a compelling crowd rouser but remote and cold personally, puritanical but more than a little lascivious, and the object of fervid political devotion yet ruthless in the pursuit of his compassionless notion of revolution. Service deals with Trotsky's life from boyhood to the end but concentrates on the critical period from his days as a youthful revolutionary and foe of Bolshevism through the s and the dramatic arc from his ascendancy to his defeat.

The writing is trim and unadorned, allowing Service to march expeditiously over new ground: Trotsky's early political affinity with Stalin, the smug self-confidence that worked against him in the post maneuvering, and his moments of striking political insight, which were matched by those of disastrous misjudgment. Robert LegvoldForeign Affairs has produced a valuable handbook on the life of one of the twentieth century's most fascinating--and still puzzling--personalities.

It is the achievement in particular of Robert Service not only to have uncovered new material from previously unavailable Soviet archives, but to have cast new light on many of his writings and activities. He forces us to reinterpret drastically what it was Trotsky believed and fought for. Rather than being some kind of alternative to Stalin, Trotsky undoubtedly would have created a regime as monstrous and horrific as that which came to exist.

Ronald RadoshNew CriterionThis absorbing, well-written biography presents a major reassessment of the life and career of Leon Trotsky The biography is distinctive, in part, because it casts a critical yet judicious and well-founded view on Trotsky's life and is written by distinguished Oxford historian Service, who has a deep understanding of the events and actors of the period.

The author uses newly available archival materials such as telegrams, letters, and other documents to build a more accurate portrayal of his complex subject. In addition, Service reconsiders the large volume of materials that has long been available about Trotsky and subjects it to innovative scrutiny that often yields interesting results This book will undoubtedly become the standard biography of Trotsky, and it is unlikely to be superseded for many years.

About the author Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations. Robert William Service. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. Read more about this author Read less about this author. Customer reviews. Stalin: A Biography. Get it as soon as Tuesday, Feb 4.

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Bertrand M. Victor Sebestyen. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. Simon Sebag Montefiore. Leon Trotsky. Next set of slides. The only major difference between Trotsky and his fellow Bolshevik leaders was that he never got the chance to wield total power… Service is the first major biographer of Trotsky to portray him as myopic villain instead of defeated prophet.

Trotsky biography amazon

The intellectual, orator, manager of the Bolshevik coup and architect of the Civil War victory remain, but alongside them must be laid the mendacity of his memoirs, the ugly egotism and unpleasant, overweening arrogance, the belief in and enthusiastic practice of killing on a colossal scale, the political ineptitude, the limit of ambition. It was personality that divided them and both personalities were highly unattractive.

But for those with an open mind, Trotsky: A Biography shows that in the end, Stalin and Trotsky were blood brothers. Blood being the operative word. He is a compelling crowd rouser but remote and cold personally, puritanical but more than a little lascivious, and the object of fervid political devotion yet ruthless in the pursuit of his compassionless notion of revolution.

Robert Service, less admiring by far, has uncovered a mass of new information, some of which makes for a pretty unattractive view of the man. Trotsky: A Biography is sparkling on his political and personal travails, and indeed his crimes and follies. Encyclopedic is the word, and it is oh, so well written. He forces us to reinterpret drastically what it was Trotsky believed and fought for.

Rather than being some kind of alternative to Stalin, Trotsky undoubtedly would have created a regime as monstrous and horrific as that which came to exist. The author uses newly available archival materials such as telegrams, letters, and other documents to build a more accurate portrayal of his complex subject. In addition, Service reconsiders the large volume of materials that has long been available about Trotsky and subjects it to innovative scrutiny that often yields interesting results… This book will undoubtedly become the standard biography of Trotsky, and it is unlikely to be superseded for many years.

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! About the author Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations. Robert William Service. Read more about this author Read less about this author.

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Customers say. Select to learn more. Biography quality Readability Readable Narrative quality. Images in this review. Top reviews from the United States. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Verified Purchase. In this book, Robert Service completes his biographical trilogy of the protagonists of the October Revolution and its aftermath - Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky.

As he has in the two earlier accounts, Service meticulously lays bare the influences upon and generated by his subject. While disclosing Trotsky's personal faults, his inability to coalesce factions into a realistic governing role, his inability to empathize on a personal level, his failure at critical times to seize the moment and exercise sound judgment, the author reveals that the heart of Trotsky's downfall was his utopian vision, a worldview historically untenable, philosophically unsustainable, and psychologically misanthropic.

He was no more likely than Stalin to create a society of humanitarian socialism even though he claimed and assumed that he would. Totsky failed to work out how to move from party dictatorship to universal freedom. He reveled in Terror. Trotskyists invented a man and a leader who bore only an erratic kinship to Lev Davidovich Trotsky. The reader will gain greater insight into the man's later years as he grew older yet unflexible in his commitment to his faith in the ultimate triumph of Marxism.

The reality is that even Trotsky was unable to set forth a consistent explication of what all the nonsense was about "dialectical materialism. They overlooked the damage he aimed to do to their kind of society if ever he got the trotsky biography amazon. Only that which prepares the complete and final overthrow of imperialist bestiality is moral, and nothing else.

The welfare of the revolution - that is the supreme law. He notes that his father, a life-long social revolutionary activist, "will gladly hold forth on the largest of subjects: the social evolution of human beings since Homo habilis; the materialist underpinnings of ancient civilization; the French Revolution; the Cold War. The subjects he chooses are usually so vast, so breathtaking, that one can be forgiven for failing to realize how hollow the information is that he imparts.

It doesn't matter if he himself knows the intimate details of the topics on which he expounds; his concern is with Truth. Robert Service has done a masterful job recounting the life and ideas of Trotsky. Typically for him, his research is exhaustive, his writing is insightful, his style exquisite. I found this book both insightful and thorough.

It's a great read that keeps one engaged and performs the most difficult task in historical literature, translating historical figures into three dimensional, trotsky biography amazon and blood people. This is a well written biography of a fascinating founder of the Soviet Union. It is chilling how Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin had no qualms about murdering kulaks and the Bourgeoisie to spread terror and subservience in pursuit of their goal of an idealistic socialist state.

A main contention of Service is that Trotsky was never going to come out the victor for a variety of well documented reasons. Service presents a convincing argument that this unlikely result would only have been totalitarianism of a slightly different flavor. One person found this helpful. The photo of Trotsky on the book's jacket is one of the most arresting I've ever seen.

The face -- young, intelligent, earnest and, unobscured by the beard, appealing -- explains much about this man's complex character. And the book is billed by The New Yorker as, "unlike much work about Trotsky So I was well-disposed towards this book. There's obviously much an historian's work behind Robert Service's book, but alas, I can't see much of the historian's craft in it.

I was a history major and attended Oxford, and my impression was that the historian's prime directive is rigor. I fail to see much of that here. Besides editorial sloppiness and uneven annotation, there's a lack of detachment. It belies an eagerness to announce, "See, see, I told you he was a bad guy! Specifically: Service makes it clear early on that his mission is to serve as an antidote to what he regards as the hagiography surrounding Trotsky.

What he comes up with is this rather mean-spirited effort to bring Trotsky down a notch or two, mainly by gratuitous and petty personal jabs, often following faint praise. While admitting to Trotsky's intellect, organizing acumen and faithfulness to his creed, Service apparently finds the revolutionary's narcissism a worthy counterweight.

Service relates Trotsky's scrupulous reading of a friend's book: "[T]he exclamation marks in the margins testify to angry self-righteousness and intellectual self-regard. Was I being self-righteous or egotistical? Risibly, Service opens himself to the same charge later, when he quotes Trotsky relating how, after being on a prison barge for three weeks in Siberia, he "was put ashore with one of the women exiles, a close associate of mine from Nikolaev".

Service then uses his own exclamation mark, as he observes: "The last sentence refers to his pregnant wife Alexandra.