
The ebb and flow of debate about Stalin's Russia is brilliantly captured in this book. Chris Ward conceptualizes the field in a clear and helpful way, offers a synthesis of the vast secondary literature in the area, and provides evaluation of the key issues at stake. This...

Focusing on key themes in the period--from the rise of the General Secretary at the end of the 1920s to the world of "late Stalinism"--Chris Ward takes the reader to the center of the contemporary debate on Russia under Stalin and shows how historical enquiry has been conditioned...