Author:Mark Galeotti
'Fascinating... One of the most astute political commentators on Putin and modern Russia' Financial Times
'An amazing achievement' Peter Frankopan
Can anyone truly understand Russia?
Russia is a country with no natural borders, no single ethos, no true central identity. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, it is everyone's 'other'. And yet it is one of the most powerful nations on earth, a master game-player on the global stage with a rich history of war and peace, poets and revolutionaries.
In this essential whistle-stop tour of the world's most complex nation, Mark Galeotti takes us behind the myths to the heart of the Russian story: from the formation of a nation to its early legends - including Ivan the Terrible and Catherine the Great - to the rise and fall of the Romanovs, the Russian Revolution, the Cold War, Chernobyl and the end of the Soviet Union - plus the rise of a politician named Vladimir Putin, and the events leading to the Ukrainian war.
This is terrific - and an amazing achievement to cover so much ground in such a short and wonderfully readable book.
—— Peter FrankopanAn informative, perceptive and exhilarating canter through 1,000 tumultuous years
—— SpectatorFascinating... One of the most astute political commentators on Putin and modern Russia
—— Financial TimesEilenberger's survey of high thoughts and low politics among German-language philosophers of the 1920s is a salutary tale for today, not just a gripping panorama of century-old dreams and feuds
—— EconomistAccessible and deeply human ... He draws these four intellectual magi out of the shadows of their writings
—— John Kaag , The New York TimesLike any great story, Eilenberger's is not made up, but retrieved. Events have a way of narrating themselves when they encounter a gifted storyteller
—— Costica Bradatan , Los Angeles Review of BooksA book of riches - full of stories as well as ideas, all brought together with a fine light touch
—— Sarah BakewellParticular brilliance ... This accessible account tells the story of the quest, and of the man who made it possible
—— BBC History Magazinereveals the sheer complexity, detail and dazzling precision that, for the scientist, constitutes 'beauty in nature'. Close maintains a strong narrative line - we are watching and waiting throughout for the Higgs boson to be identified.
—— Sue Roe , Mail on SundayA perfect marriage of subject and writer. With verve, insight, and rigor, Frank Close beautifully illuminates the life and times of one of physics' great, unheralded giants. Elusive is a triumph of a book, and one worthy of its subject's extraordinary contributions.
—— bestselling author of The Founders , Jimmy SoniElusive is both a deep, exciting intellectual history and an elegantly told portrait of a quiet man whose 'one great idea' changed modern physics forever. Close marries the exotic details of contemporary particle physics theory with the very human aspects of how that theory came to be. An enlightening read from one of our very best writers and practitioners of physics.
—— author of The Last Man Who Knew Everything , David N. SchwartzRich, compelling, and surprising. Fundamental physics can be equal parts awe-inspiring and head-spinning, and Close masterfully captures those qualities in this deeply satisfying tale of Peter Higgs's convoluted, and very human, journey through life and science.
—— author of The Ascent of Information , Caleb Scharfbeautifully, engagingly written ... I was reassured by the characteristic wisdom and honesty of Close's judgement that, while the discovery of the Higgs particle completes the Standard Model of the atom, "Internal completeness is a mathematical requirement, whereas describing the world around us is the demand of natural philosophy". That sentence alone makes Elusive my book of the year.
—— Raymond Tallis , Times Literary Supplement Books of the YearFrank Close is probably the perfect person to tell the tale of Higgs and his boson. A serious physicist himself, he is also an exceptional author - and, unlike with most authors, his subject actually occasionally speaks to him.
—— Tom Whipple , Times Books of the Yearthe first full biography of Higgs ... focuses just as much on Higgs the particle as he does on Higgs the scientist, and the physics concepts he explores can be daunting. But this excellent book is well worth the effort.
—— Mike Perricone , Symmetry Books of the YearA compelling account of the long search for the Higgs boson
—— Books of the Year , EconomistBecause there would be no atoms or molecules without the intervention of the Higgs field, our very existence is a consequence of its reality ... a compulsive read. Besides explaining the physics and exploring the many personalities involved, it also conveys the excitement of physics research, the missed opportunities, the happy coincidences, the false trails, the social networks, the collaborations and professional rivalries. Like an established scientific fact that will stand for all time, this book is a definitive account of an historic scientific achievement.
—— Rick Marshall , Physics EducationNot so much a history book as a book of historical significance
—— BBC History Magazine, *Best Books of 2022*No other English-language biography has so successfully given us a portrait of him as man and monarch ... superb.
—— Gareth Russell , The TimesThe best single-volume account of the reign in any language
—— John Adamson , Sunday TimesAuthoritative ... Mansel is ideally positioned to examine Louis' record ... Time and space both yield before Mansel's authorial ambition
—— Minoo Dinshaw , Daily TelegraphA superb biography ... wonderfully detailed and fluent ... Mansel is alive to every nuance
—— Hamish Robinson , Oldie