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Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
Oct 6, 2024 8:30 AM

Author:Anne Applebaum

Iron Curtain

Chosen 16 times as a 'Book of the Year' - the top non-fiction pick of 2012

'The best work of modern history I have ever read' A. N. Wilson, Financial Times

At the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union unexpectedly found itself in control of a huge swathe of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to a completely new political and moral system: Communism. Anne Applebaum's landmark history of this brutal time shows how societies were ruthlessly eviscerated by Communist regimes, how opposition was destroyed and what life was like for ordinary people who had to choose whether to fight, to flee or to collaborate.

A haunting reminder of how fragile freedom can be, Iron Curtain is an exceptional work of historical and moral reckoning.

ANNE APPLEBAUM is a historian and journalist, a regular columnist for the Washington Post and Slate, and the author of several books, including Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. She is the Director of Political Studies at the Legatum Institute in London, and she divides her time between Britain and Poland, where her husband, Radek Sikorski, serves as Foreign Minister.

'The outstanding book of the year ... a masterpiece' Oliver Kamm, The Times, Books of the Year

'Exceptionally important, wise, perceptive, remarkably objective' Antony Beevor

'Explains in a manner worthy of Arthur Koestler what totalitarianism really means ... it is a window into a world of lies and evil that we can hardly imagine' Edward Lucas, Standpoint

'At last the story can be told ... a magisterial history' Orlando Figes, Mail on Sunday

Reviews

Jam-packed with unusual insights and facts about Georgian London. A great read from a talented new historian

—— Independent

Inglis writes colourfully and engagingly, and offers plenty of odd facts and amusing vignettes

—— Economist

Full of neat character portraits and engaging plots

—— Financial Times

Pacy, superbly researched. The real sparkle lies in its relentless cavalcade of insightful anecdotes . . . There's much to treasure here

—— Londonist

Read and be amazed by a city you thought you knew

—— Jonathan Foyle, World Monuments Fund

Fun, fast and factual . . . Lucy Inglis offers, without breaking stride, a delicious panorama of people, quiddities and oddities

—— Evening Standard

Inglis has a good ear for the outlandish, the farcical, the bizarre and the macabre. A wonderful popular history of Hanoverian London

—— London Historians

The Georgians had enough scandal and drama going on to fill a dozen tabloid papers. The rather-fit Lucy Inglis crams it all into this startling book which will have you pining for a taste of those debauched days

—— Sunday Sport

From the Great Fire in 1666 and the covering of the old 'Ditch' where the Fleet river once ran, to the creation of Westminster Bridge, the British Museum and the National Gallery, Lucy Inglis gives us an entertaining romp through well-known parts of London

—— Who Do You Think You Are?

Lucy Inglis leaves no stone unturned, no coffeehouse unvisited and no dark alley unexplored . . . a dazzling tapestry of 18th-century London life emerges. Lively, engaging, fascinating, humorous

—— BBC History

[An] engaging and industrious survey of life in Georgian London

—— TLS

Reading Lucy Inglis's brisk, astringent and highly amusing tour around various quarters of Hanoverian London on Boxing Day is the ideal antidote to the excesses of Christmas and will keep you snugly entertained in your armchair for hours

—— History Today, 'Books of the Year'

Anyone who is interested in history and our great capital city will be gripped by Georgian London. This book is full of enjoyable nuggets

—— Soane Magazine

Inglis describes a city that was just beginning to become modern, with all its colourful high and low life

—— Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society

Gatrell's evocation of taverns, bagnios and alleys is compelling. He has a lovely eye for shadows in paintings and how they indicate time of day; he has a lively eye for sympathies in sketches. Butchers, bawds, rakes, tradesmen, sailors, fruit-sellers, fruit-buyers, tailors, cooks, pie-men, aristocrats, oilmen, coalmen, stay-makers, bookbinders, button-sellers and dozens of others are particularised fleetingly from crowds. Exact topography makes it clear how jostle and juxtaposition brought all sorts of people together. Decent dealings get an occasional look-in; the possibility of clean, calm and sunny moments is conceded. ... for all its zest for sensual assault, [The First Bohemians] engages with the unwashed great in illuminating scholarship

—— Clare Brant , Times Higher Education

Fresh, interesting… Vivid and often moving

—— Ekin Karasin , UK Press Syndication

White writes with the fluency of a novelist, and this book can be hugely recommended

—— Mark Le Fanu , Spears Wealth Management Survey

A first-rate social history

—— Ian Thomson , Guardian

As ever with Jerry White, the broader themes are peppered with wonderful, throwaway trivia, while the main thrust is both meticulously researched and highly readable

—— Londonist

White’s book is a true piece of art

—— Susannah Perkins , Nudge

A sparkling and fascinating account

—— David E. Hoffman

Well-paced narrative...of great relevance today, when such conflicts seem (but only seem) to have disappeared.

—— Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

Immensely compelling

—— Fred Hiatt , The Pat Banker

Meticulously researched

—— Duncan White , Irish Independent

The true strength of this meticulously researched book is the placing of the revelations into the context of a compelling human drama

—— Weekly Telegraph

Engrossing

—— Andrew Lynch , Sunday Business Post

[An] outstanding treasure of literature

—— Market Oracle

Impeccably researched, and moving, this book breaks new ground

—— 5 stars , Sunday Telegraph
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