This book is a non-sensationalistic, rather fair account of Joseph Stalin's life. The author goes out of his way to try to find actual documentation and explanations for Stalin's rise to power and subsequent life as dictator of the Soviet Union. This work is refreshingly free of the anti-communist hysteria of other more famous accounts. The only thing that rings untrue in the book is the possible 6 million victims of one year's famine in 1932- but look up the reference and we find that Mr. Mcneal used Robert Conquest as a source, thereby negating the aforementioned incredible number.