Author:Vladimir Lenin,Robert Service
In July 1917, when the Provisional Government issued a warrant for his arrest, Lenin fled from Petrograd; later that year, the October Revolution swept him to supreme power. In the short intervening period he spent in Finland, he wrote his impassioned, never-completed masterwork The State and Revolution. This powerfully argued book offers both the rationale for the new regime and a wealth of insights into Leninist politics. It was here that Lenin justified his personal interpretation of Marxism, savaged his opponents and set out his trenchant views on class conflict, the lessons of earlier revolutions, the dismantling of the bourgeois state and the replacement of capitalism by the dictatorship of the proletariat. As both historical document and political statement, its importance can hardly be exaggerated.
Translated and edited with an introduction by Robert Service
An intimate portrayal of a fierce environment
—— The TimesAn inspiration, to say the least
—— Daily MailA wonderful book
—— Daily MailMagee has been fascinated by life as it is lived by himself and others. Here he writes vividly
—— The TimesSocial history that brings to life a very different world
—— Financial TimesIt is the vividness of his recall, his feel for emotion and ability to pinpoint people and place that make this such a compelling read
—— Publishing NewsBob Drogin accomplishes what only the best reporters can; he forces you to wonder how he could possibly know that! If you want to know how the CIA could have possibly been so wrong about Iraq, here is a big part of the answer. It is a case study in how even the most intelligent and capable people can, when determined enough, hear only what they wish to hear
—— Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down and Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America's War with Militant IslamA crucial study in the political manipulation of intelligence. Understanding how Curveball got us into Iraq will arm us for the next round of lies coming out of Washington
—— Robert Baer, author of See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism, and Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi CrudeCurveball is a true story, marvelously reported, about a descent into the nether world of deceit and duplicity, where the lies of a single man in an interrogation cell in Germany grew like a malign spore in the dark. When it emerged, on the lips of the President and the Secretary of State, it infected the course of world events.
—— Jonathan Harr, author of The Lost Painting and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for A Civil ActionHere we go again: the self-deception, the corruption of intelligence, and the abuse of authority, amid a full cast of the usual suspects in the White House and the Pentagon. It's a crucially important story, and it comes wonderfully alive in Curveball. It would be almost fun to read if the message wasn't so important-and so devastating to the integrity of the American processes.
—— Seymour M. Hershpacey, insightful and compelling
—— The ScotsmanMiranda Carter writes with lusty humour, has a fresh clarifying intelligence, and a sharp eye for telling details. This is traditional narrative history with a 21st-century zing. A real corker of a book
A highly original way of looking at the years that led up to 1914
—— Antonia Fraser , Sunday Telegraph Books of the YearCarter deftly interpolates history with psychobiography to provide a damning indictment of monarchy in all its forms
—— Will Self , New Statesmen Books of the YearA depiction of bloated power and outsize personalities in which Carter picks apart the strutting absurdity of the last emperors on the eve of catastrophe
—— Financial Times Books of the YearTakes what should have been a daunting subject and through sheer wit and narrative élan turns it into engaging drama. Carter has a notable gift for characterisation
—— Jonathan Coe , Guardian Books of the Year
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