The book Platoon Bravo Company contained it all. From the missions all the way down to the soldiers. An awesome book! The best part of the book is how it takes us to the front lines and lets us experience what the war actually may have been like. This is an excellent book for schools to refer back to and show what it was really like to fight in Vietnam. It is also a great book if you like action and a book that keeps you reading from beginning to end. A good element of the book is how Hemphill tells us his story from the day he takes over Bravo Company and until the day he leaves his command of the Infantry. This is a great aspect because it was meant to show us how Vietnam took drastic measures on American soldiers.
The book showed us how Vietnam really was, rather then what it has been portrayed as. It also shows us why the madness takes over the soldiers. Hemphill's explanation of the Tet Offensive is tremendously helpful to get an understanding of its effect in this book. The book over time gives a basic understanding of how these men not only had to save their lives and lives of others; but also save men from the madness brought to them by the war. This book to me portrayed the realistic madness of Vietnam as well as the surroundings Americans were forced to fight in. It gives a great understanding on how hard it was to fight in a place like Vietnam. The explanation in this book was so good that I now have a totally different opinion about Vietnam. In my opinion the best Vietnam book out there.

In"Platoon: Bravo Company", Mr. Hemphill's account of the 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, Bravo Company's Vietnam war experience, while under his command as Captain is unflinching, candid, and necessarily detailed. The author takes the reader with him from the very first day that he takes the helm of Bravo Company for the duration of his command. The author carefully pays attention to battle site, historical, and factual detail, and weaves sufficient prose to pique the readers interest by describing the surrounding elements of experience, characters and survival. This book is recommended for the military enthusiast or avid reader who appreciates excellent non-fiction.

The book Platoon Bravo Company contained it all. From the missions all the way down to the soldiers. An awesome book! The best part of the book is how it takes us to the front lines and lets us experience what the war actually may have been like. This is an excellent book for schools to refer back to and show what it was really like to fight in Vietnam. It is also a book that keeps you interested from beginning to end. A good element of the book is how Hemphill tells us his story from the day he takes over Bravo Company and until the day he leaves his command of the Infantry. This is a great aspect because it was meant to show us how Vietnam took drastic measures on American soldiers.
The book showed us how Vietnam really was, rather then what it has been portrayed as. It also shows us why the madness takes over the soldiers. Hemphill's explanation of the Tet Offensive is tremendously helpful to get an understanding of its effect in this book. The book over time gives a basic understanding of how these men not only had to save their lives and lives of others; but also save men from the madness brought to them by the war. This book to me portrayed the realistic madness of Vietnam as well as the surroundings Americans were forced to fight in. It gives a great understanding on how hard it was to fight in a place like Vietnam. The explanation to me was so great that I now have a totally different feeling about Vietnam. In my opinion the best Vietnam book out there.

A friend bought me this book for Christmas because I was thinking of running for office. I didn't think much of the book until I sat down to read it. What a great book! This book dosen't waste your time reading through a lot of useless material to get to the point. I already had some ideas as to how I was going to run my campaign. After I sat down to read the book, I realized that some of my ideas would have wasted a lot of my time and money. Now, with the advice from this book I will be able to put on a much more effective campaign. I have a few friends who are thinking of running for office and I plan to do them a favor and buy them this book.

What an easy book to read. It's written in laymen's terms and it is so easy to understand. The author goes straight to the point on every page. There is no wasted space here. The advise on targeting the voter and how to maximize your time when going door-to-door is worth the cost of the book itself. If you are going to run for a public office, as I plan to, this book is a very wise investment!

The advice I found in this book was fantastic! It showed me several ways to save a lot of money in a campaign for public office. I really liked the advice in the first two chapters about what to expect when you get into politics. It was a real eye-opener for me. With all that I have learned from this book, I know that my first campaign will be ten times more effective, and I'll save money at the same time! I would recommend this book to anyone who even thinks they might someday run for office!

When any medical student is studying, they usually end up with a copy of this book.

It's BIG - over 1200 pages of the tiniest possible readable writing, and covers vitually every disease in clincal medicine.

You'll find yourself referring to this one a lot, as it's the de facto medical bible, it's a wonderful reference text.

However, I'm not sure you'll want to learn from it directly, as the writing is disjointed from chapter to chapter (it was written by many authors), and it just doesn't "read" well. I certainly find an entire chapter at a time too much to bear in one sitting.

That said, you'll still want this book - the breadth of chapters is amazing, and it's hard to argue with its authority!

This book is the Bible of Internal Medicine. Anyone considering a career in medicine should have this book in their library. Comprehensive and well written, it is the gold standard of medical textbooks.

This book is the Bible of Internal Medicine. Anyone considering a career in medicine should have this book in their library. Comprehensive and well written, it is the gold standard of medical textbooks.

The crisis in Somalia, the genocide in Rwanda, why do so many well-intentioned development assistance efforts fail so miserably? As America has been drawn in yet another asymmetric conflict with a collapsed state and Western governments are already discussing ways to implement democracy in order to prevent the conflict from escalating Conrad's timeless tale of idealism and greed suggests that changing the world is an almost impossible task. Many articulate magazine articles or specialized books have attempted to explain how a series favorable trade, free markets and respect for human rights can result in long term positive change. Yet, despite the abundance of information we're still left wondering; logical arguments and historical accounts have proved insufficient in satisfying the need to understand why the development process is so complicated. Although written in 1904, Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard represents Conrad's ultimate opinion of the world. It's a long book, 465 pages in the Penguin Classic edition, but it's rich in observations on human nature as well as Conrad's typical lively landscape descriptions. In the former regard, Nostromo is superior to Conrad's more famous novel Heart of Darkness as he tells the story of very believable characters that are familiar to most readers.

Nostromo is a novel that stands comparison with War and Peace. Widely seen as Conrad's greatest work, it contains amazing - one might say appalling - insight into the human condition in the century that was just beginning. Conrad's father had served time in Siberia-like exile with his young family in tow, for participating in revolutionary, patriotic Polish politics. The experience had shortened his parents' lives and left Conrad an orphan at an early age, giving the writer a personal preview of what the new century was going to be like for so many others. The novelist's modern insight was not only on the political and social front but also into man's sense of identity. With Godot-like despair, Decoud, the character closest to Conrad in Nostromo, "beheld the universe as a succession of incomprehensible images." Stranded by himself for several days he becomes suicidal, realizing that "in our activity alone do we find the sustaining illusion of an independent existence as against the whole scheme of things of which we form a helpless part." At the same time it is beautifully written and is a gripping adventure - so can work on many different levels. Anyone who reads novels should read this classic.

Another thick complex Conrad adventure has a great vivid setting and his usual playful narrative style that exposes the same story at different times through several different points of view, all which clash over the big silver mine in the center of everything, which seems to control every action in the plot. The most riveting aspects of the tale (outside the revolution and the tortured bonds between the characters) happen but briefly on the water. Comparisons to Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness are inevitable though this one stands out on its own, provided the over detailed writing doesn't off put the casual reader. Once again, as with every Conrad piece, you have to read carefully, and be on the look out for abrupt changes in time, place and thought, which he purposely intertwines to expose a larger picture: a rather effective way to unleash the English language, considering that it wasn't Conrad's original native tongue. Title character Nostromo stands out as the key tormented romantic "hero" but the rest of the abundant cast each have their dramatic moments near and around, and before and after him as well. JC weaves all their lives into the same colorful pattern. The silver mine by the time all is finished has power over each of them, a very hypnotic and manipulative symbol of greed and loss. Don Martin Decoud, next to Nostromo himself, makes an impression as the story's most heartbreaking character. He becomes the most tragic person in the book.

Peter Bogdanovich has written a book that is for the movie enthusiast. I suspect the general reader may find some of the interviewees obscure, and the topics technical. I feel that is their loss. For the student of film or film history, this is a treasure trove of information, ideas, experiences, and feelings about films taken from interviews with some of the most distinguished directors in movie history. The author's selection is not encyclopedic, but the directors' experience spans from the earliest years of silent film to the present. These men are not just informative, but their strong and distinctive personalities show in each interview, giving the sense that one has actually met and understood many of them. Some of the interviews are brief, or even very idiosyncratic, but the best are delightfully personal. This is a long book, but affords many pleasant evenings of good conversation. It also makes one want to go back and see the films again!

Regardless of one's feelings about the egomania of author Bogdanovich (and it certainly bleeds through every page), he provides the creative world a great service by sharing his many years of interviews with some of the masters of American Film.

Contained within these pages is a critical access to the creative process. Each director interviewed (obviously some more than others) provides invaluable insight into the nuts and bolts of film directing. Bogdanovich has compiled with this book, an indispensable historical document that does much to inspire, educate and guide any aspiring film director.

I particularly valued Alan Dwan's insights into the importance of communicating character relationships into the narrative. I have incorperated much of the late director's invaluable advice into my attempts at stage direction.

All in all a must have for anybody interested in directing or gaining insight into the creative process.

This is an incredible book that contains Bogdanovich's various interviews with some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers. These are not detailed biographies however, they are an in-depth conversation about the filmmaker's films and his own feelings about them. While some go into the individual's past it is just so you can get an idea of the personality of the filmmaker. This is a must-have book. A good way to look at it is to read it through once and become familiar with all of the directors, some of whom may be new to you. Then as you view their films go back and read what they have to say. Though sometimes their comments are very brief, it's one of the few sources you'll find where the film-maker makes direct reference back to a film. And I don't know what it is about Bogdanovich but he always brings out gems of truth from those he interviews.

Describing this novel will almost certainly minimize its tremendous power. A fictionalized first person of a key Newfoundlander's life, coupled with intercalary chapters which are a satiric history of Newfoundland, sounds like one of those heavy tomes worthy of a Canadian TV mini-series rather than a good evening's read. But this book is a powerful, solid read, the kind of read one imagines cannot be obtained in a modern novel. Smallwood, Newfoundland's first premier upon its confederation with Canada, is portrayed in a variety of situations throughout a long life, some historical and some fictional. But this novel does not bear the cobwebs of the "fictional history" genre. Instead, the book's two major characters--Smallwood and Sheilagh Fielding--seem as real as life, flawed and fascinating.

This book is vibrant and alive, straightforward, believable,and wholly warm and human. The parts of the book based on actual history are much more fantastic than the parts of the book which are pure fiction. The book explores some interesting ideas--the twin pursuit of compassion and ambition, the persistence of love over time, and the effects on the protagonists of constant self re-invention. The reader comes away with a sense of place as to Newfoundland, with that feeling of having "known" the characters,and with an abiding respect for a gifted novelist. This is one of the truly great novels I've read.

Perhaps I'm a little bit biased towards this novelization of the life of Joey Smallwood. No, I'm not from Newfoundland. No, I'm not a historical fiction buff. No, my name's not Joey.

But as I read along, a sneaking suspicion entered my mind. I did a little bit a family research, and it turns out that I am distantly related to the character of Prowse, who could be loosely described as Smallwood's arch-enemy. Admittedly, it is a tenuous relation (three generations by marriage), but still, very cool. And of course, it helps that the novel is one of astonishing quality.

COLONY tells of the slow rise of Joey Smallwood, from his very humble beginnings to his eventual election as Newfoundland's first premier. Now, I don't know anything about the history of Newfoundland. I don't believe the book is meant to be a technically accurate representation of Smallwood's life. This is not a biography.

What COLONY is, is a vastly entertaining look at the twists and turns that can occur in the life of one man. As in John Irving's best novels ( I kept thinking of THE CIDER HOUSE RULES as I read along), COLONY is an epic view of a tiny subject. As Smallwood's life progresses, the story becomes more and more enriched with characters and themes and regrets and promises. What Smallwood does with his life is miraculous, and sometimes awe-inspiring. I don't mean to imply that Smallwood is a saint. But his flaws and delusions only serve to heighten his triumphs and failures.

As I said, I don't know how much of COLONY is factually true. Did he have an ongoing unrequited love affair with his childhood friend and nemesis Fielding? Are the motivations behind his actions accurate? In the end, it doesn't matter. This isn't meant to be a treatise on the political background of a premier. This is a story, and a damned fine one. And it is obvious after reading it why, for all his mistakes, Joey Smallwood is a widely beloved figure in Newfoundland.

I have had the good fortune to live and travel in Newfoundland, so I was excited to read Wayne Johnson's unforgettable book, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. I loved the book for its amazing characters and its haunting landscapes. I was particularly fascinated with Smallwood and Fielding, and find myself wanting to know much more about the real life and history of Joey Smallwood. I grew up in Nova Scotia and knew of Smallwood only as some mythical person, the Only Living Father of Confederation, who dragged Newfoundland kicking and screaming into Canada. This book gave me a sense of the real man behind the myth, and Smallwood is as unforgettable as his province. Even though I lived at one time in a remote outport on White Bay, I never fully understood the outporter's perspective on Canada until I read this book. The book is beautifully sad and desperate, but it is also hilarious in places. It holds its own with other recent books I have read about this special place: Howard Norman's The Bird Artist and E. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News. For the reader interested in reading more about Newfoundland, I would recommend Ray Guy's humorous You May Know Them As Sea Urchins, Ma'am and Claire Mowat's The Outport People. My all time favorite Newfoundland book remains Cassie Brown's Standing into Danger. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams portrays the generosity and courage of the ordinary Newfoundlander, but Standing into Danger captures the spirit of a people who have nothing and who are willing to give everything.

I saw this movie during a documentary class and my whole class enjoyed watching this movie. However there are many who refer to this movie as a view of "eskimo" life, which it is not. We learned in class that this movie was actually representing a time about 10-15 years prior to the filming. Many of the things in this movie were contrived for the making of the film. Some examples of this were Nanook's name (and family) and the walrus hunt (they no longer used harpoons to get walrus', instead they used guns).

However, that said, this WAS one of the best fictional accounts of inuit life I have ever seen. It truely had the flavor of reality and I found myself numourous time pulling for the people in the film. It also had an essence of comedy that I had not expected. I found my self very satisfied with the movie in general.

Most of what I could say has already been said. It is an important historical document of a vanished way of life. It is a unique tribute to one man & his stand agianst the elements. Flaherty invented documentary as we now know it in this film. The filmmaker displays almost as much tenacity & courage in recording the material as Nanook does in his everyday life. A measure of the film's greatness is the profound effect it had on Orson Welles. After seeing the film Welles is said to have abandoned the editing of his 'Magnificent Ambersons' & taken on a journey to South America to shoot in documentary style.

Robert Flaherty's "Nanook of the North" is a true classic of ethnographic film. The principle behind anthropological film in the early days of its existence was to capture traditional societies in time, a sort of "salvage ethnography." In doing so, filmmakers like Flaherty and others particularly focused on Amerindian cultures, which were seen as a dying remnant of early America. In creating his silent masterpiece, Flaherty used actors of Inuit extraction, who still knew the traditional ways, and who could reproduce their culture for posterity through film. Though his methods have been criticized as contrived and retrogressive, post-modernist rhetoric has not succeeded in ruining this film in the popular or anthropological circles. "Nanook" remains a warm account of traditional Inuit/Eskimo life, despite their frigid setting. The DVD collectable edition contains some photo galleries and useful material about Flaherty and his subjects.

Axel Heyst, the protagonist in Conrad's novel, Victory, makes a final statement to Davidson, a fellow seaman, just before he dies: "...woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love--and to put its trust in life!" This statement coming from a man whose whole life has been lived in isolation is remarkable. His father taught him that life was a Great Joke, that it was an illusion; that the best way to survive was to drift oneself into oblivion. But he found love in the person of Lena and it changed his perspective on living and was responsible for his change of heart as represented in the above-quoted statement. It's too bad that the novel could not have had a happy ending, but Conrad's view of the world probably would not permit it. I found the novel engrossing, somewhat melodramatic, yet vintage Conrad in its depiction of good and evil battling each other on the island of Samburan.

Victory is the story of a man named Heyst who leads an isolated life in the South Pacific. However, he is drawn out of his isolation when he brings a woman to his island home. A chance encounter between a dishonest German who dislikes Heyst and two criminals sets up the dramatic ending. Conrad's style is as fluid as in his better known books, such as Lord Jim, and it is amazing that someone could write English so well who did not learn it until later in life and who always spoke it with a heavy Polish accent. Victory is similar to Conrad's other works in that the plot flirts with melodrama, but always is rooted in realism. Those who read the book will find the title apt.

Victory is the best of the handful of Conrad novels I have read (for reference sake, the others are Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Heart of Darkness, and Nostromo). For one thing, the other novels were much heavier in their narrative and descriptive content. As a result, I often suffered from mental imagery overload when plodding through a page-long paragraph. Victory has more dialogue, making it an easier read. Conrad's characters are always great, and the ones in this book are no exception. I also really liked the correlation between these characters and their environment. Heyst living in a serene yet isolated island matched his aloofness perfectly. As the book reaches its climax and tensions reach a boiling point, Conrad adds to this tension in godlike fashion, as the storm evinces the internal and external struggles occurring in Heyst. Of course, Conrad don't write no happy tales (sic), but in the end, I think that the title Victory was still very appropriate. This was an excellent read and one of the best novels I have read in a long time.

The Ideology of Life: The Foundation of Political Revolution and 21st Century Sustainability By Dr Joseph Palmer Roberts ISBN: 1-890456-02-0 In The Ideology of Life, Joseph Roberts defines two broad groups of people, the Maladaptors and the Adaptors. The former are the Systematized types who are the spoilers and the latter, those who are seeking something entirely new. Joseph Roberts sees that the underlying cultural ideology is primal in coercing the former behavior and way of thinking and insists that this factor is not generally appreciated. Thus, people continue plugging away at mis-aligned policies and ways of life detrimental even to themselves. While familiar in a general manner with most of Joseph Robert's positions, certainly the support material and concepts he holds are more detailed and further reaching than I usually see expounded. I see the value of this book, not only in educational terms - as it is targeted at those in the Maladaptor sector - who will be reluctant to read it - but for those activists and thinkers who are trying to do something about the mis-directed circumstance of the human being today. Here is a lot of information and a comprehension of processes. The most receptive audience of course is the already converted, but isn't this always the case! Here, those on the brink of a universal change, likely because of personal suffering which causes them to begin a rethink for the matter is coming from a place beyond their own immediate control - the System reverting to default. In this way The Idealogy of Life will help turn the tide in the favour of the Adaptors. Beyond that it appears Joseph Roberts writing has all the elements of a world-wide manifesto for a political entity that takes as its focus the entirety of the problems which, implicating all people's on their own doorstep, originate elsewhere. This points at the multi-national corporation, the supporting industrial and military complex and the power holders of today who refuse to give an inch or assist in the furthering of real democracy. They only want a style of formal democracy where they retain control. Because of a fixed market - the Maladaptors would say free market' - the stance of the developing nations is negatively affecting economically distant countries as seen in the North America-South America fiascos of market domination and the suppression of home industries, which in turn - as detailed in the Ideology of Life - is breaking families everywhere. Quote: "Make no mistake about it, it is the negative economic impact that the globalization and centralization of the economy is having on families and communities, not the lack of family values' as the ruling elite want us to believe, that is the primary cause of family and community disintegration.". Ignoring what is plainly stated in the book may result in a general collapse where humanity has to start again. This means terrible world-wide suffering. So we had better use such as this writing as a basis for change in a linked grouping of political parties - or create them if they don't exist as Joseph Roberts assumes - across the world to begin affecting the kind of root changes delineated in The Ideology of Life. A worthy read that is more than timely; that is almost too late... Tony Henderson, Chairman, Humanist Association of Hong Kong, and Asia Zone Representative of the Humanist International.

The revealed truth becomes obvious to the reader only after one has had time to digest all that the author is saying. Even though the ideas presented are controversial, it is the controversial nature of those ideas that make the book very interesting reading. Dr. Roberts is obviously a leading thinker on the subject of 21st century sustainability. His vision of a sustainable future is compelling. His suggested path to that future (a political-ideological revolution) is both compelling and controversial. I embrace that vision, if not the entire path, and urge others to fully understand and think about what he is saying. This book should be mandatory reading for all students, politicians and environmentalists. In fact, it should be mandatory reading for any person who is interested in using the democratic process to create a better world. -- M. Jones.

"The Ideology of Life" is unique in its field at simultaneously incoorporating a deep look at the causes of the Western world's accumulating crises, with a rational and detailed outline of solutions to our crises. He accomplishes his goal of instigating cultural change by presenting this information in a style that allows an average reader to fully and easily grasp the implications of the processes. His formula for cultural change remains within the framework of the capitalist infrastructure, a goal usually overlooked by writers of this calibur in the field of political revolution. Few writers present criticism this extensive and answer it with this level of detail in novel and practical solutions capable of being understood by the majority of people. This book presents a balanced paradigm shift.

I happened to mention to a few colleagues the other day that I was reading Robert Conquest's "The Great Terror". This drew blank looks. I amplified somewhat, referencing Stalin, Yeshov, Molotov. More blank looks.

I grew up in a cold war household. My father was a something of a rarity, he was a right wing journalist who travelled widely in Russia bringing back a story which, in the 60s and 70s, was largely ignored by the media and everyone else. He knew then what we all know now, that Russian communism was rotten to the core and was a house of cards teetering on abject collapse. Alas, but that house took decades to come down and so condemned a further generation or two to lives of quiet and unrelieved desperation and hopelessness.

What does our society know of this? A society that, in the case of America, can be convulsed with paroxysms of despair when a few thousand people died in a single tragic incident -- genuinely convinced that something without precedent has happened. The most common formulation we hear of this, is the common reference to September 11th as "the day our world changed". For heaven's sake -- there is now a Jenny Craig television advertisement in which a formerly fat person testifies that September 11th changed her world such that she decided to lose wait. Ye Gods.

But what exactly is it that changed? History, as my high school history teacher used to say, tailgates. Conquest tells us that Stalin and Molotov, during a "typical day at the office", would sign liquidation orders for THOUSANDS of innocent people by simply putting their signatures together with the word "liquidate" at the bottom of a sheaf of papers that contained the names. And then they would head for the cinema, a solid day's work done. All that appears to have changed is that moderns have forgotten the nightmares of yesterday. Each fresh outrage is treated as something unique, something personal, something without precedent. "The Great Terror" is an effective antidote to this type of thinking.

"The Great Terror" is a book that was available in the late sixties. It was, like my father, largely ignored. I had school chums who were Marxists. Teachers as well. They either denied the facts or more often, accepted what had happened on the principle that it was necessary to "break a few eggs to make an omelette". And so the regime which was to be responsible for murdering tens of millions of its own citizens, on a scale and in a cold blooded manner that rivals and even surpasses the more famous Hitlerian Holocaust, is ignored or forgotten.

In 1990, communism collapsed. My father, am embittered old cold warrior by then, took little pleasure from having been proven right. Conquest, however, took the opportunity to revise and expand his monumental book. Virtually everything he had written about was confirmed by the glasnost revelations - as he takes pains to demonstrate.

It is true that many of those who died in the execution cellars or the death camps deserved their fate. But the vast majority were innocent wives children, peasants teachers workers and writers. It is estimated that "every other family in the USSR had one of its members in jail". Stalin's purges gave rise to the unthinkable. A slave labour economy. Want to know why they beat us to space or how they got the Bomb so quickly? Well, among other things, they stole virtually all of our secrets and the had slave labour. On the theft of the West's secrets another must read is David Holloway's "Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy 1939-1956".

Conquest writes quite well - he is also an accomplished poet. But the book is also something of a catalogue of horrors and he writes in what is at times a dismayingly dispassionate manner. He is somewhat relentless. As fact piles upon fact, outrage upon outrage we are led to say with each turn of the page, "Dear God in heaven, what fresh hell is this". But the horror is NOT lost on Conquest and he stands, almost alone, as our witness to those terrible times. If not in the pages of this book, then where will we learn the names of those who perished so many years ago. Virtually no one under the age of 40 really understands what went on.

Conquest's book needs to be read by all of us. And in particular those who think that the suicide attack on the WTC was something new; an event that "changed our world". Because it wasn't. ...

When I read the first edition of this book back during the Cold War, it was difficult to believe the quality of scholarship and research effort that Conquest demonstrated throughout this book, written while the KGB was still running amok. What most general histories dismissed with a few sentences or paragraphs as "millions died or were imprisoned", Conquest gave us the names, the chronology, and the results of Stalin's paranoid Reign of Terror. Now that the archives have become more accessible, Conquest is able to update his work and further illuminate this darkest period of Russian (and perhaps world) history. ANYTHING written by Conquest is worth reading if you want to understand the workings of 20th century Soviet politics and society.

Robert Conquest's The Great Terror, a Reassessment, is they definitive English language work on Stalin's purges. The book has had some criticism from the far left, but Conquest has been largely vindicated by the now open Soviet archives.
This book is largely dispassionate. Conquest resists the urge to excessively moralize. Instead, he treats his subject matter in largely chronological order, with a few diversions for background. The result is a detailed catalog of the horrors of the purges. The text relies on excerpts from the trail transcripts, and these are absolutely chilling taken in context of the result. Each trial is worse than the other. In fact, to some extent the trials are worse because of the sheer routine the purges degenerated intoforced confessions, self-betrayals, they all became commonplace. Society turned against itself, until you were not considered a responsible citizen unless you denounced somebody; turning on your neighbors, friends, even relatives became a method of insuring personal security and survival. This book is 'must' reading for anybody who wants to understand Stalinism and this period of the Soviet Union. The lessons learned should never be forgotten...