Nuclear Bombs and Bomb Shelters
Guest: Edward Geist on Armageddon Insurance: Civil Defense in the United States and Soviet Union, 1945-1991 published by University of North Carolina Press.
January 17, 2020
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Russia in Global Affairs
Guest: Fyodor Lukyanov on Russia in the Middle East: Viewpoints, Policies, Strategies published by East View.
January 7, 2020
Ivan the Terrible
Guest: Charles Halperin on Ivan the Terrible: Free to Reward and Free to Punish published by University of Pittsburgh Press.
December 30, 2019
The Stuff of Red Army Soldiers
Guest: Brandon Schechter on The Stuff of Soldiers: A History of the Red Army in World War II Through Objects published by Cornell University Press.
December 18, 2019
Russia, China and Inbetween
Guest: Ed Pulford on Mirrorlands: Russia, China, and Journeys in Between published by Hurst.
December 7, 2019
Book Reviews
The Theater of Diplomacy
I wrote a review of Alexander Etkind’s Roads Not Taken: An Intellectual Biography of William C. Bullitt and Michael McFaul’s From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia for Bookforum. Unfortunately, the review is behind the dreaded paywall. So here’s the pdf.
March 29, 2018
The Russian Revolution as Past Made Present
Mikhail Zygar’s The Empire Must Die provides a narrative timeline for the Russian Revolution as an allegory for Russia’s present.
December 24, 2017
The Materiality of Russian Oil
I review Doug Rogers’ deconstruction of oil—not to uncover its relations of production—to trace the dispersion of its value in shaping the post-Soviet province of Perm.
December 24, 2017
Putin’s World
I wrote a review of Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy’s newly expanded edition of Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin for OpenDemocracy. Here’s an excerpt:
February 9, 2015
Pussy Riot’s Passion
My review, “Demystifying the media caricatures of Pussy Riot” of Masha Gessen’s Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot has been published in
February 7, 2014
Stalinist Patrimonialism
My review, “Russian politics has always been patrimonial,” for Russia Direct of J. Arch Getty’s new book Practicing Stalinism: Bolsheviks, Boyars, and the Persistence of
December 19, 2013
Five Books on Putin
Stephen Kotkin, Professor of History at Princeton University, reviewed five recent books on Putin in the 2 March issue of the Times Literary Supplement. Kotkin
April 10, 2012
Red Autobiographies
I recently published a review of Igal Halfin‘s Red Autobiographies: Initiating the Bolshevik Self in the journal NEP Era: Soviet Russia, 1921-1928 (vol. 5, 2011).
December 30, 2011
New NBRES Interview with Lewis Siegelbaum
My interview with Lewis Siegelbaum about his book Cars for Comrades: The Life of the Soviet Automobile is now online. Subscribe via ITunes.
July 23, 2011
New NBRES Interview with Daniel Treisman
My interview with Daniel Treisman on his book The Return: Russia’s Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev is online. Subscribe via ITunes.
July 6, 2011