Books by Robert Service
Robert Service is Professor of Russian Studies at St Antony’s College, Oxford. His research interests cover Russian history from the late 19th century to the present day and he has written numerous books on the subject. Nowadays he is focusing on Russia in its international framework. He is currently working on the geopolitics of the Russian Revolution as well as a study of the end of the Cold War.
“Lenin has some claim to being the most influential person in all of the 20th century. Without Lenin, there would have been no Russian Revolution. It was he who insisted, against the initial resistance of his Bolshevik colleagues, that the Bolsheviks seize power in the then capital of the Russian Empire, St Petersburg. They did that in 1917 and consolidated it in a bloody civil war thereafter…The book that I found most useful is a biography by the British historian Robert Service, who is an expert on the Soviet Union. He has written a number of books, knows all of the literature about Lenin, and has written a relatively compact single-volume biography. It shows Lenin warts and all, and there were lots of warts.” Read more...
The Best Biographies of 20th Century Leaders
Michael Mandelbaum, International Relation
Interviews with Robert Service
The best books on Totalitarian Russia, recommended by Robert Service
Robert Service, Professor of Russian Studies at Oxford, when forced to choose between Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin, says Stalin was definitely the worst of the lot. He takes a look at the dynamics of totalitarian Russia, gleaning insights from Thucydides to Orwell.
Interviews where books by Robert Service were recommended
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1
Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
by John Milton Cooper -
2
Lenin: A Biography
by Robert Service -
3
Mao: The Man Who Made China
by Philip Short -
4
The Hitler of History
by John Lukacs -
5
Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948
by Ramachandra Guha -
6
A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion
by Tom Segev
The Best Biographies of 20th Century Leaders, recommended by Michael Mandelbaum
The Best Biographies of 20th Century Leaders, recommended by Michael Mandelbaum
The first half of the 20th century was an era when individuals could have a huge impact on the course of history—whether for good or bad, argues political scientist Michael Mandelbaum. He recommends the best biographies to read about the eight world leaders who feature in his latest book, The Titans of the Twentieth Century, from Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) to Mao Zedong (1893-1976).
