Thinking the Twentieth Century by Tony Judt
Tony Judt's last book is an admirable assessment of intellectuals and politics in the last centuryIn this marvellous book, two explorers set out on a journey from which only one of them will return. Their unknown land is that often fearsome continent w...
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder
Neal Ascherson on why Auschwitz and Siberia are only half the storyHe found himself treading upon "bottomless, unsteady earth" crawling with small flies. The novelist Vasily Grossman, then a Red Army soldier, was walking across the still-settling waste...
Ryszard Kapuściński was a great story-teller, not a liar | Neal Ascherson
Critics of Ryszard Kapuściński's books miss the point – there is no sharp frontier between literature and reporting
Ryszard Kapuściński kept two notebooks when he was on the road. One was for his job as an agency reporter, haring about the world, meeting deadlines and battling to file...
