Leon Trotsky

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InLeon Trotsky, Paul Le Blanc delves deep to understand Trotsky's complexcharacter, relationships, actions and ideas. Interweaving dramatic historicalevents with Trotsky's multi-faceted personality, this book explores hisinvolvement with and opposition to the Soviet bureaucracy, and his effortsto revitalize the revolutionary wing of the labour movement. Revealed hereare his urgent warnings of Hitler's rise and the spread of fascism, hispenetrating understanding of the French Popular Front and the SpanishCivilWar, and his analysis of the ominous beginnings of the Second WorldWar. Throughout, Trotsky remained animated by the early ideals of theCommunist tradition. Drawing from a rich array of sources, Le Blancoffers a balanced portrait of Trotsky in a historical context that will beinvaluable for students, scholars or anyone with an interest in political historyand extraordinary lives.

Reviews

'Even-handed but sympathetic, learned but not overbearing, Le Blanc's expert study leads a reader through the complexities of twentieth-century history and the vicissitudes of revolution, while also painting an intense, and at times heartbreaking, portrait of a key player and critic of capitalism and real-existing Communism. Le Blanc provides a sharp assessment of the influence and actions of Trotsky and the Trotskyists, against the backdrop of Hitler's rise to power and the purges unleashed by Trotsky's nemesis, Stalin.' - Esther Leslie, Professor of Political Aesthetics in the School of English and Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London

Author Bio

Paul Le Blanc is Professor of History at La Roche College, Pennsylvania, and the author of Unfinished Leninism: The Rise and Return of a Revolutionary Doctrine (2014).