This is a surprisingly interesting book. In just 143 pages (including extensive footnotes), the author examines many aspects of the Soviet dictator’s life through the prism of Freudian psychoanalysis. And many of his conclusions are…Read more…
“A Complete Unknown”: Bob Dylan and the Stalinists
The new film about the early years of Bob Dylan’s career, “A Complete Unknown,” is a brilliant, must-see film. Timothée Chalamet is outstanding as the young Dylan — not only as an actor, but as…Read more…
Review: I Knew Stalin, by Anatole V. Baikaloff
No, he didn’t. The author of this short book, a former Bolshevik, apparently met Stalin briefly before the 1917 revolution, and says that the man didn’t make much of an impression. The remaining 90% of…Read more…
Review: Stalin: Czar of all the Russias, by Eugene Lyons
This is how history books used to look: no index, no footnotes, no bibliography. Life for historians was easier in 1940. Eugene Lyons, a journalist, was the first Western newspaperman to interview Josef Stalin in…Read more…
Review: The 8-week Blood Sugar Diet: Lose Weight Fast and Reprogramme your Body, by Dr Michael Mosley
Dr Michael Mosley, who sadly died last year, was one of the great communicators about science and medicine. His radio shows and podcasts taught millions of us about things we could do to improve our…Read more…
Georgia at a crossroads – and what Britain can do.
My first article to appear in Progressive Britain – click here to read it.
US unions: In unity, maybe, there is strength
Twenty years ago, some the largest unions in the United States broke away from the AFL-CIO claiming that it was not doing enough to organise workers. Everyone understood that the labour movement was rapidly shrinking,…Read more…
Who rules Georgia?
The pro-Moscow ruling party in Georgia, billionaire Bdzina Ivanishvili’s “Georgian Dream,” is growing increasingly desperate in its attempts to hold on to power following the 26 October elections. First, they bungled the attempt to steal…Read more…
The Georgian Uprising – August 1924: European Social Democracy at the Crossroads
The following is the text of a speech I gave today in Newcastle at the 50th annual conference of the Study Group on the Russian Revolution. It is an abridged version of a paper I…Read more…
Review: Dead Head, by C.J. Skuse
If you’re looking for a book about Grateful Dead fans, this is not it. But if you want to continue following the increasingly strange adventures of the female serial killer Rhiannon Lewis, this is book…Read more…
Review: In Bloom, by C.J. Skuse
A pregnant woman, her boyfriend in prison accused of murder, and on the run from police and nosy journalists — well, that’s one way to describe this delightful book. The other way is — a…Read more…
The Georgian crisis deepens
Georgia’s increasingly authoritarian and pro-Russian government has made a major miscalculation. Protests against the fraudulent elections on 26 October were showing signs of dying down. When the Georgian Parliament met — with all the opposition…Read more…
World leaders unite in support of workers rights. Not really.
At the recent G20 Leaders’ Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the Director General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Gilbert F. Houngbo, praised the leaders for recognising the need for social justice and decent work….Read more…
Review: Sweetpea, by C.J. Skuse
I’m almost embarrassed to say how much I enjoyed this book. The best way to describe it is that it’s an updated version of American Psycho set in England of today, with a young female…Read more…
Review: Prequel, by Rachel Maddow
I used to think that the only really good books about the right-wing, antisemitic, isolationist and racist mass movements in the United States during the 1930s and early 1940s were John Roy Carlson’s “Under Cover”…Read more…
Georgia’s democratic future depends on us
More than three weeks have passed since the elections in Georgia and the dust has not yet settled. Though the election results, which showed a clear majority for the pro-Russian ruling party, have now been…Read more…
Review: The Wehrwolf, by Alma Katsu
Alma Katsu writes horror as well as espionage thrillers, and this one started with a really good premise: imagine if the Nazis with their “Werwolf” resistance movement at the end of the Second World War…Read more…
Review: Shaken, Not Stirred, by Alma Katsu
The final volume of the novella that began with The Spy Who Vanished, this is the weakest of the three. It’s much more of a shoot-em-up, with an unsatisfying ending, in my view.
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Review: On Enemy Ground, by Alma Katsu
This novella (or short story) is the sequel to The Spy Who Vanished about a “Russian James Bond”. Not as good as the first, but still well-written and engaging.
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The first “MAGA movement”
On the eve of the Second World War, the American journalist John Roy Carlson infiltrated a large number of pro-fascist organisations across the country. The book he wrote, Under Cover, was a best-seller. The inside…Read more…