Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe (U)

A bold new accounting of the great social and political upheavals that enveloped Europe between 1914 and 1945 from the Russian Revolution through the Second World War.In Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, acclaimed historian Robert Gellately focuses on the dominant powers of the time, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, but also analyzes the catastrophe of those years in an effort to uncover its political and ideological nature. Arguing that the tragedies endured by Europe were inextricably linked through the dictatorships of Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, Gellately explains how the pursuit of their utopian ideals turned into dystopian nightmares. Dismantling the myth of Lenin as a relatively benevolent precursor to Hitler and Stalin and contrasting the divergent ways that Hitler and Stalin achieved their calamitous goals, Gellately creates in Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler a vital analysis of a critical period in modern history. The Washington Post - Simon Sebag Montefiore The image of Lenin that emerges from the pages of this book, even the mere mention of him in the title alongside Stalin and Hitler, writes Robert Gellately in the introduction to his new study of the epoch of the great slaughterhouse in the 20th century, will disturb some people. The author, a distinguished academic, adds that a good friend of mine said the very thought of putting Lenin next to Stalin and Hitler in the book's title would be enough to make her Russian grandmother turn in her grave. But let that Russian grandmother turn: It's time to rip up the accepted versions of this terrible period and analyze it on the evidence that we now have. Gellately has done just that in a book that is both sensible and sophisticated, scholarly and very readable.