D. C. B. Lieven Boeken

'Brilliant' MICHAEL GOVE, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'A historian's version ofWar and Peace . . . this is military history of a high order, plunging us into a world of dashing dragoons and bristling moustaches, in which the largest army ever assembled came to grief in the snow outside Moscow' DOMINIC SANDBROOK, DAILY TELEGRAPH, BOOKS OF THE YEAR In the summer of 1812 Napoleon, the master of Europe, marched into Russia with the largest army ever assembled, confident that he would sweep everything before him. Yet less than two years later his empire lay in ruins, and Russia had triumphed. This is the first history to explore in depth Russia's crucial role in the Napoleonic Wars, re-creating the epic battle between two empires as never before. 'A landmark book' ECONOMIST,BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'A magnificent and outstanding tour-de-force . . . as exciting and sensitive as the most thrilling novel but packed with new revelations and vivid descriptions of savage battles, swashbuckling cavalrymen and towering personalities' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE, EVENING STANDARD 'Radically alters our assumptions about how Napoleon was beaten' ANDREW ROBERTS, DAILY TELEGRAPH, BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'A monumental work' ORLANDO FIGS Shortlisted for the 2009 Duff Coper Prize

For millennia much of the world was ruled by emperors, a handful of individuals claimed no limit to the lands they could rule over and no limit to their authority and indeed often claimed a superhuman or divine authority. In practice they ran the gamut from being some of the most remarkable men who ever lived, to being some of the worst and least remarkable. Dominic Lieven's marvellous new book, In the Shadow of the Gods, is the first to grapple seriously with this extraordinary phenomenon. Lieven compares the great emperors of antiquity, the caliphs and the warrior-emperors of the steppe before he turns to the Habsburg, Russian, Ottoman, Mughal and Chinese emperors, packing the book with extraordinary stories, astute observations and a sense of both delight and horror at these individuals' antics. The entire breadth of extreme human behaviour is here, from warlords to patrons of the arts, from political genius to feeble incapacity and pathological violence. As one of the great experts both on empires and on Russian history, Lieven is brilliantly qualified to write a book that brings to life a system of rule that dominated most of human history, as well as some of history's grandest and most dismaying figures.

In the summer of 1812 Napoleon, the master of Europe, marched into Russia with the largest army ever assembled, confident that he would sweep everything before him. Yet less than two years later his empire lay in ruins, and Russia had triumphed. This is the first history to explore in depth Russia's crucial role in the Napoleonic Wars, re-creating the epic battle between two empires as never before. Dominic Lieven writes with great panache and insight to describe from the Russians' viewpoint how they went from retreat, defeat and the burning of Moscow to becoming the new liberators of Europe; the consequences of which could not have been more important. Ultimately this book shows, memorably and brilliantly, Russia embarking on its strange, central role in Europe's existence, as both threat and protector a role that continues, in all its complexity, into our own lifetimes

Focusing on the Tsarist and Soviet empires of Russia, Lieven reveals the nature and meaning of all empires throughout history. He examines factors that mold the shape of the empires, including geography and culture, and compares the Russian empires with other imperial states, from ancient China and Rome to the present-day United States. Illustrations.

The Russian decision to mobilize in July 1914 may have been the single most catastrophic choice of the modern era. Some articulate, thoughtful figures around the Tsar understood Russia's fragility, and yet they were shouted down by those who were convinced that, despite Germany's patent military superiority, Russian greatness required decisive action. Russia's rulers thought they were acting to secure their future, but in fact - after millions of deaths and two revolutions - they were consigning their entire class to death or exile and their country to a uniquely terrible generations-long experiment under a very different regime.Dominic Lieven is a Senior Research Fellow of Trinity College,Cambridge University, and a Fellow of the British Academy. His book Russia Against Napoleon (Penguin) won the Wolfson Prize for History and the Prize of the Fondation Napoleon for the best foreign work on the Napoleonic era.

The book offers an insightful exploration of leadership and power, examining the influential figures who shaped empires throughout history. It delves into the qualities and decisions that defined these leaders, highlighting both men and women who played pivotal roles across different cultures and eras. Through compelling narratives, it reveals the complexities of authority and governance, providing a rich understanding of what it means to lead.

The decision to go to war in 1914 had catastrophic consequences for Russia. The result was revolution, civil war and famine in 1917-20, followed by decades of Communist rule. Dominic Lieven's powerful and original new book, based on exhaustive and unprecedented study in Russian and many other foreign archives, explains why this suicidal decision was made and explores the world of the men who made it, thereby consigning their entire class to death or exile and making their country the victim of a uniquely terrible political experiment under Lenin and Stalin. Epic in detail and scope, The End Of Tsarist Russia is a gripping study of why the Russian Revolution happened and why it had such fateful consequences for both Russia and Europe. The End Of Tsarist Russia is about far more than Russia. By looking at the origins and results of the First World War from a mostly Russian angle, it offers a radically different view of why Europe descended into disaster. Dominic Lieven's interpretation of Europe's great war and Russia's revolution will overturn assumptions about events that still have major implications for world history down to the present day

"Marx held that the progression of society from capitalism to communism was 'historically inevitable'. In Russia in 1917, it seemed that Marx's theory was being born out in reality. But was the Russian Revolution really inevitable? This collection of fourteen contributions from the world's leading Russian scholars attempts to answer the question by looking back at the key turning points of the revolution. From the Russo-Japanese conflict of 1904-5 through to the appropriation of church property in 1922, and focusing especially on the incredible chain of events in 1917 leading to the October Revolution itself, Historically Inevitable? is a forensic account of Russia's road to revolution. Each contribution gives not only a fast-paced, incisive narrative account of an individual aspect of Revolution but also, for the first time, an intriguing counter-factual analysis of what might have gone differently. Featuring Richard Pipes on the Kornilov affair, Orlando Figes on the October Revolution, Dominic Lieven on foreign intervention and Martin Sixsmith on the attempted assassination of Lenin in 1918, Historically Inevitable? explains how each of these moments, more through blind luck than any historical inevitability, led to the creation of the world's first communist state. Tony Brenton's afterword to the volume draws parallels between the Revolution and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and places the events of 1917 in the context of more recent events in Russia and the Crimea. Featuring contributions from: Donald Crawford - Sean McMeekin - Dominic Lieven - Orlando Figes - Richard Sakwa - Douglas Smith - Martin Sixsmith - Simon Dixon - Boris Kolonitsky - Richard Pipes - Edvard Radzinsky - Catriona Kelly - Erik Landis - Evan Mawdsley"--Publisher's description

W przenikliwej analizie historii stosunków międzynarodowych w początkach XX wieku, w latach poprzedzających wybuch pierwszej wojny światowej, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem polityki rosyjskiej tego czasu, brytyjski historyk Dominic Lieven stawia tezę, że fundamentalny dylemat, przed którym stanęli Europejczycy w 1914 roku, nie został rozwiązany do dziś: „Logika, na której opiera się Unia Europejska, ma charakter imperialny. Aby uniknąć prawdopodobnej marginalizacji, gdy decydować się będą kwestie związane z ich bezpieczeństwem i dobrobytem, mieszkańcy Europy muszą łączyć zasoby swojego kontynentu: raczej nie podobałby im się świat, w którym decyzje w najważniejszych kwestiach handlu i ekologii podejmują Donald Trump, Xi Jinping i Władimir Putin. W obliczu coraz bardziej niebezpiecznego klimatu międzynarodowego konieczność europejskiej solidarności jest oczywista. Ale Europa jest także kontynentem, w którym wynaleziono nacjonalizm etniczno- językowy i który nie może się uwolnić spod wpływu «polityki tożsamości». Łączenie tych przeciwieństw jest obecnie nie mniej trudne – i nie mniej ważne – niż w roku 1914. Przekształcenie Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w region państw zbudowanych według modelu etniczno-językowego odbyło się kosztem dwóch wojen światowych, ludobójstwa i czystek etnicznych. Proces ten jeszcze się zresztą nie zakończył, skoro wciąż nie do końca poradziliśmy sobie ze skutkami rozpadu imperium radzieckiego czy Jugosławii. Skutki upadku imperium objawiają się zwykle w pełni po upływie co najmniej jednego pokolenia. Niewykluczone – choć moim zdaniem mało prawdopodobne – że upadek imperium i katastrofy lat 90. XX wieku w Rosji będą miały katastrofalny wpływ na Rosjan, ich sąsiadów i cały świat”. Autor wskazuje także na te współczesne problemy w Europie i na innych kontynentach oraz na wyzwania wynikające z kryzysu klimatycznego, które stanowią nie mniejsze zagrożenia niż uwarunkowania w 1914 roku.