Historians and writers need to be open to chance discoveries, says Eric Lee. Serendipity can be a researcher’s secret weapon, as he found while working on his latest book. When doing research for a work of history or a historical novel, we know (or should know) how to locate and use primary sources, where to […]
The Georgian Experiment
Author Eric Lee on his thirty year quest to publish a book about Georgia’s forgotten revolution. I was born in America at the height of the Cold War, during the McCarthy era, when the word “socialist” was a term of derision. But I somehow managed to find myself on the Left (the Vietnam war may […]
Russian Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths
The British Library’s new exhibition marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution. Jason Hewitt gets a sneak preview. As we have all experienced, the last twelve months has seen a series of seismic political shifts taking place across the western world. Whether it’s the surprise Brexit vote, the election of Trump, or France’s ousting of her political […]
Top ten books about the Russian Revolution
At Queens University Belfast, I read Russian Studies and English for my first degree. My enjoyment of novels set in Russia has never left me. The centenary of The Russian Revolution is an opportunity for me to revisit books that are set just before, during and in the immediate aftermath of the revolution. These selected […]
Revolution: Russian Art 1917–1932
One hundred years on from the Russian Revolution, Imogen Robertson reviews a new Royal Academy exhibition that explores the period through its art. Want to find yourself in a crowd surrounded by slogans demanding revolution or exhorting devotion to a new strong man leader? Want that and a gift shop? Then leave twitter and the American Embassy […]