Author: Robert Gellately File Type: epub A chilling, riveting account based on newly released Russian documentation that reveals Joseph Stalins true motivesand the extent of his enduring commitment to expanding the Soviet empireduring the years in which he seemingly collaborated with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and the capitalist West. At the Big Three conferences of World War II, Joseph Stalin persuasively played the role of a great world leader, whose primary concerns lay in international strategy and power politics, and not communist ideology. Now, using recently uncovered documents, Robert Gellately conclusively shows that, in fact, the dictator was biding his time, determined to establish Communist regimes across Europe and beyond. His actions during those yearsand the poorly calculated responses to them from the Westset in motion what would eventually become the Cold War. Exciting, deeply engaging, and shrewdly perceptive, Stalins Curse is an unprecedented revelation of the sinister machinations of Stalins Kremlin.**From BooklistAuthor of several histories of German and Russian totalitarianism, Gellately here indicts Stalin as the primary instigator of the Cold War, marshaling evidence from Communist archives that undermines the revisionist case for Western responsibility for starting the confrontation. Arguing that Stalin was a hands-on director of expanding the Communist domain from 1939 to 1953, Gellately points to Stalins ideological convictions as the driving motive in his political decisions, contrasting them with his mollifying arguments to Western diplomats about Russias reasonable needs for security. The ground-level ramifications were, as Gellately recounts, police-state suppression of freedom and abolition of capitalism through executions, deportations, and gulags, which claimed victims by the millions. Amid his inventory of countries subjected to Stalins rule, Gellately credits the Red dictator with political acumen in deceiving Western leaders about his true objective of imposing one-party states. Stalins Communist associates and acolytes knew better, and the archives preserve their orders from Stalin about local tactics for eradicating non-Communist opposition and, in Korea, starting a war. Thoroughly researched, Gellatelys fine contribution to Cold War studies will engage readers with its inside-the-Kremlin detail. --Gilbert Taylor Review*Praise for Robert Gellatelys Stalins Curse hrMasterly. . . . Gellatelys latest work has a good claim to be the best single-volume account of the darkest period in Russian history. The Economist Impeccably researched and cogently argued . . . Gellatelys intimate knowledge of the sources across Eastern European and of Russian archives compels us to accept his conclusions. . . . The blame for the barren cul-de-sac down which global history strayed for nearly half a century has never been better diagnosed It was Stalins curse. The Wall Street Journal Well-researched. . . . [Gellatelys] grasp of the literature is tremendous, especially his expertise with the Soviet archives. I know of only two or three other books that can rival Stalins Curse in terms of its penetrating use of Russian sources. . . . Gellately does an excellent job of showing how the Soviet leader took his country from a backwards nation to a global superpower. Jordan Michael Smith, Christian Science Monitor Incisive. . . . [Gellately] dashes once and for all the claims of blame-America academicians and faux historians that Washington was responsible for the Cold War. The Washington Times Outstanding. . . . A prominent historian of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, Gellately offers a panoramic view of Stalins political, diplomatic and psychological manoeuvres that allowed the USSR to achieve superpower status. The author has an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject and provides a compelling narrative of deception, brutality, foolishness and betrayed idealism. Times Higher Education Masterful . . . historian Robert Gellately takes us back to square one. Whodunit? Stalin. Macleans A compelling argument. . . . Gellately traces Stalins career in a new work that takes dead-aim at debunking historiographical views that Stalins political post-World War II posturing originated from any obsession with national security. The Advocate A refreshingly frank analysis. Not for [Gellately] is the revisionist notion that the US was as much to blame for the cold war as the Soviet Union . . . a powerful work of synthesis. New Statesman The complicated story . . . is graphically and succinctly told. The narrative is compelling. . . . Although Stalins Curse emphasizes the unprecedented ruthlessness of Stalin, it has implications for today. Literary Review (UK) Florida State Universitys Gellately (Lenin, Stalin and Hitler) adds to his distinguished body of work on 20th-century totalitarianism with this analysis of Stalins conduct in international relations between 1939 and 1953 . . . Interweaving scholarship and the testimonies of those who suffered under Stalins rule, Gellatelys history is political and personal. Publishers Weekly Gellately here indicts Stalin as the primary instigator of the Cold War, marshaling evidence from Communist archives that undermines the revisionist case for Western responsibility for starting the confrontation . . . Gellatelys fine contribution to Cold War studies will engage readers with its inside-the-Kremlin detail. Booklist Masterful. . . . This book should become a go-to read on how the Cold War developed. Library Journal Gellately has written a fascinating study of Stalins motivation. Using rich sources from archives to memoirs, [he] convincingly shows that Stalin was a committed follower of Marxism-Leninism and worked constantly to expand the international revolution under Russias leadership. . . . Highly recommended. Choice Magazine

Author: Jodi Bilinkoff File Type: pdf The Avila of Saint Teresa provides both a fascinating account of social and religious change in one important Castilian city and a historical analysis of the life and work of the religious mystic Saint Teresa of Jesus. Jodi Bilinkoffs rich socioeconomic history of sixteenth-century Avila illuminates the conditions that helped to shape the religious reforms for which the citys most famous citizen is celebrated. Bilinkoff takes as her subject the period during which Avila became a center of intense religious activity and the home of a number of influential mystics and religious reformers. During this time, she notes, urban expansion and increased economic opportunity fostered the social and political aspirations of a new middle class of merchants, professionals, and minor clerics. This group supported the creation of religious institutions that fostered such values as individual spiritual revitalization, religious poverty, and apostolic service to the urban community. According to Bilinkoff, these reform movements provided an alternative to the traditional, dynastic style of spirituality expressed by the ruling elite, and profoundly influenced Saint Teresa in her renewal of Carmelite monastic life. A focal point of the book is the controversy surrounding Teresas foundation of a new convent in August 1562. Seeking to discover why people in Avila strenuously opposed this ostensibly innocent act and to reveal what distinguished Teresas convent from the many others in the city, Bilinkoff offers a detailed examination of the social meaning of religious institutions in Avila. Historians of early modern Europe, especially those concerned with the history of religious culture, urban history, and womens history, specialists in religious studies, and other readers interested in the life of Saint Teresa or in the history of Catholicism will welcome The Avila of Saint Teresa. First published by Cornell University Press in 1989, this new edition of The Avila of Saint Teresa includes a new introduction by the author. **Review The name Teresa of Avila immediately evokes Berninis stone image of the saint in ecstasy. This lucid and readable study reveals another more public Teresa, the egalitarian monastic reformer. Tracing the development of Teresas ideas in the context of the religious and social ferment of 16th-century Avila, Bilinkoff demonstrates the interaction between the urban pietistic reform movements and the rise of a non-noble merchant class of largely Jewish descent. Teresas effort to reform the Carmelite order by founding small, unendowed convents devoted to contemplative prayer, Bilinkoff argues, challenged class and racial prejudices as well as the traditional dependence of monastic institutions on the aristocracy. Balanced and well researched, this volume will be welcomed by religious and social historians and scholars in womens studies.Virginia Quarterly Review What Bilinkoff does exceedingly well is to give us a genuine feel for the city of Avila both before and after Teresas lifetime. . . . Readers of this great saints work will be enriched by this careful piece of social history.Commonweal An important addition to our understanding of sixteenth-century Spain.Sixteenth Century Journal Examining the Catholic Reform and Counter-Reformation through the microcosm of the city of Avila, Bilinkoff provides a depth of analysis unequalled by any other study of this major reform movement.Catholic Historical Review In The Avila of Saint Teresa, Jodi Bilinkoff describes with clarity and concision the world of sixteenth-century Avila, known through its charismatic and dynamic monastic reformer Teresa de Ahumada, Santa Teresa. This twenty-fifth-anniversary edition is a testimony to the continued attraction of Bilinkoffs account, equally approachable for specialists and those who know nothing of Spain or saints. Hers is a crisp and lucid telling of a complex storythe rise of a merchant class that included converts from Judaism, its enthusiasm for a kind of religion freed from privilege in which a series of inspired women are key protagonists, and the eclipse of their movement with Spains economic decline. I recommend the book to anyone interested in the history of Spain, the Age of Reformation, mysticism, saints and society, or women and spirituality, and of course anyone going to Avila.William A. Christian Jr., author of Visionaries The Spanish Republic and the Reign of Christ About the Author Jodi Bilinkoff is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is the author of Related Lives Confessors and Their Female Penitents, 14501750, also from Cornell, and coeditor of Colonial Saints Discovering the Holy in the Americas, 15001800.