10-01-2007, 12:08 AM
Robert Conquest is a great author. Another interesting Conquest title is "Stalin: Breaker of Nations." Very accessable - kind of a popular reader about Stalin. Heck, even my wife read parts of it.
If you're interested in social history I recommend "Everyday Stalinism. Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s" by Sheila Fitzpatrick. It's been described as too dense for the uninitiated but not scholarly enough to "contribute anything new." Intellectuals... ha! For the middling historian though, which probably includes 99% of the folks here, it's a great read.
If you're interested in social history I recommend "Everyday Stalinism. Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s" by Sheila Fitzpatrick. It's been described as too dense for the uninitiated but not scholarly enough to "contribute anything new." Intellectuals... ha! For the middling historian though, which probably includes 99% of the folks here, it's a great read.
