About this title: A portrait of the head of the Soviet Union whose rule followed Stalin's identifies his impact on the country and the rest of the world, tracing his efforts to reform communism and ease the cold war.
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Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Dust Cover Missing. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 0393051447 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 2003-Hardcover----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: Fair. 0393051447 Ex-library book with stickers and stampings. Overall nice condition book with clean text and good binding unless otherwise noted. Stain and light warping on bottom edge. Most items ship within 24 hours. read more
Edition: 1st Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Free Press, London
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780743275644ISBN:0743275640
Description: Good. No Dust Jacket as Issued. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Book shows moderate wear/ spine tight, pages clean/ covers show moderate edge wear. read more
Edition: Softcover Edition
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780393324846ISBN:0393324842
Description: New, never Read, Not a Rem. Large softcover, new, never read, not a remainder. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co
Date Published: 2004-04
ISBN-13:9780393324846ISBN:0393324842
Description: New. New Book. The book shows time wear. Otherwise new condition. Free tracking # included! International buyers are welcome. We ship every business day. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! read more
"A fascinating examination of the middle period of the Soviet era through the life of a man who rose, via the revolution, from the very bottom of Russian society to its pinnacle. Once there, Khrushchev struggles with the price he--and countless others--paid for him to get there. He tries to undo the damage and make an unworkable system function. He never surmounts the insecurities of his hardscrabble rural origin and lack of education. Navigating Stalin's terror and coming out the other end was a singularly warping experience. Taubman might have added a little more context to help the reader understand the lexicon and mindset of the revolutionary and Stalinist period. But he holds to his focus on the life of this one man and thereby makes accessible his psyche and much of the society through which he moved. If you're old enough to have lived through the '50s and '60, this bio gives you an inside view of the West's Soviet bogeyman that spans the unmasking of Stalin, the Hungarian Revolution, U-2 flights, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the fear of nuclear annihilation (the springboard for "Dr. Strangelove"). They make a string of Greatest Hits, played at a slightly different speed, thanks to Taubman's access to people and archives after the fall of the Soviet Union."
"It was good to get a different perspective of Khruschev. I thought the book was fairly well balanced but was glad I had read Nikita's memoirs and his son's book as well.
The author gives Khruschev credit for starting to speak out against Stalinism (which was dangerous at that time) and unilaterally reduce the military forces of the USSR. The Cuban crisis is generally well done. I found it interesting that he trys to psychologically analyze Nikita but plays it safe when talking about American politicians. However saying that, the Kennedy's, in my opinion, did not appear very strong in the book. His discussion of Nikita's dealings with world leaders is very informative. In my opinion a much more interesting Russian figure than any of the Romanovs.
This unusual world leader is probably still underrated as he was before he became leader of the USSR."
"This was a relatively brisk read considering the length. Khrushchev grew up the son of scratch farmers, remarkably rising through the local political machinery and eventually to the pinnacle. Its difficult not to view his ascendancy as akin to "last man standing". How many underlings or competitors did he jail or "vanish"? How many lives were ruined, how many people starved in part due to his maintenance of the disastrous "collectivism" of farming? I think its humorous the way Khrushchev is sort of deemed noble by his denouncement of Stalin. Does anyone who knows the Soviet intrigue-state of double-dealing not realize this is how little Nikita survived? Stalin's legitimacy depended on his dancing on Lenin's grave. And let's not forget this smiling country boy came a hair's width from unleashing senseless nuclear Armageddon. Oh did I mention Hungary. How many dead, disinherited? Taubman writes well, has researched well, and I gleaned a great deal from this work, but a brute is a brute, and trying to humanize the leader of the soulless, shackled, cruel Soviet fiasco simply rubs me a bit raw."
"It seems ungenerous to criticize William Taubman's "Khrushchev," not least because it's about the only Khrushchev biography in English to speak of. Still, it is important to explore what this book is not: it is not a portrait of Soviet life; it is not an exploration of Communism (though there's plenty of information on that topic); and it is not, alas, a particularly great straight biography of Nikita Khrushchev. The book is disappointingly thin in sections where one hopes it will be rich with hitherto-unknown detail -- particularly in Khrushchev's war years as the supremo in Soviet Ukraine. Those "war years" lasted beyond the expulsion of the Nazis in 1944, well into the 1950s as the western Ukraine was suppressed and cleared of its nationalist insurgency. This was almost certainly the most brutal and, indeed, Stalinist period of Khrushchev's long career; and so it deserves more attention than it gets in Taubman's book.
The true value of this work -- and where Taubman truly excels -- is in its exploration of the psychological contradiction of Khrushchev's life. The Soviet premier was not, as he was described during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a "madman." Nor was he an intrinsically good man. The fall of Khrushchev was the fall of a man who rose beyond his capacity, and worse, knew it. Taubman's work is best described -- and best read -- as a character study in that vein. After a disappointing first half, the book finally comes alive as we see the peasant-minded Communist (wily enough to become leader, but not to lead) blunder through the 1957-1964 period, alienating nearly everyone save those who loved him. At its end is where this book crosses into compelling territory, where, in mere pages, we see a despondent Khrushchev in exile. A visitor asks him what he regrets. "I am up to my elbows in blood," the deposed and weary premier replies.
Indeed, he was. This book gets four stars for, at its end, delivering powerful details like this. It is denied five because the definitive biography of Nikita Khrushchev has yet to be written."
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