ROBUST discussion

Q&A on Unusual Historicals about DREAMS. http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.ie...

Also an except that no one else has from DREAMS by André Jute http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.co...

Looking forward to the Q&A.

I think you'll like this one better, Jeremy, than my deliberately short history of economics, among other reasons because here there was no artificial or economic impetus to stint on necessary pages. Not that one can tell the story of ten families over 75 years at the centre of momentous events in a small space anyhow, as Gore Vidal's publishers discovered, but I wasn't counting pages, I was asking, Is it really necessary to put in this event? I skipped a decade or so here and there, and still the whole set will add up to around 2K pages.

I'm traveling for the holidays, so maybe I'll have a chance to read it. Haven't had much chance to read at all.

Lately that is...

Incidentally, I've been on a big Russian history kick lately as well.

My favourte book of Russian history is Harrison Salisbury's Black Night, White Snow: Russia's Revolutions 1905-1917 --

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Night-Whi...

-- not least because he was superior writer as well as a sound historian. The passages about the Black Hundreds are amazingly fresh in my memory even thirty years later.

At several of my colleges Eric Hobsbawm was revered by left-leaning teachers. Telling them the man was biased and unreliable simply invited argument and suspicion. Instead I said it pained me to read such a poor stylist, and everyone nodded wisely. When I gave one of Paul Johnson's books a good review, an old professor called to abuse me. "But the man's a Catholic!" he raged.

Why are you on a Russian history kick? A particular reason, or just started by accident and got sucked in?

Just kind of accidental.

I knew the broad strokes, but found a good podcast on the subject when puttering around iTunes.

Q&A today on Unusual Historicals about DREAMS. http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.ie...

Also an except that no one else has from DREAMS by André Jute http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.co...

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT ON EITHER — OR BOTH!

Just started today on Dreams.

Enjoy! I look forward to your review, Jeremy.