Richard Overy
The Plebeian and the Patrician
Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership
By Andrew Roberts
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 196pp £18.99
It is difficult to imagine two leaders less alike than Hitler and Churchill. They were chalk and cheese. Hitler is usually compared with his fellow dictators; there are differences here too, but at least we are talking about varieties of cheese (or chalk). Comparing two men so distant in upbringing, personality, tastes and reputation is not an easy task. Each was a leader in his own mould.
Andrew Roberts has accepted the challenge on the back of his forthcoming television series exploring the qualities of leadership that brought the two men face to face across the English Channel in 1940. The result is lively, thought-provoking, and hugely entertaining. Roberts makes no bones about the fact that his
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The Soviet double agent Oleg Gordievsky, who died yesterday, reviewed many books on Russia & spying for our pages. As he lived under threat of assassination, books had to be sent to him under ever-changing pseudonyms. Here are a selection of his pieces:
Literary Review - For People Who Devour Books
Book reviews by Oleg Gordievsky
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The Soviet Union might seem the last place that the art duo Gilbert & George would achieve success. Yet as the communist regime collapsed, that’s precisely what happened.
@StephenSmithWDS wonders how two East End gadflies infiltrated the Eastern Bloc.
Stephen Smith - From Russia with Lucre
Stephen Smith: From Russia with Lucre - Gilbert & George and the Communists by James Birch
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The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945 has long been regarded as a historical watershed – but did it mark the start of a new era or the culmination of longer-term trends?
Philip Snow examines the question.
Philip Snow - Death from the Clouds
Philip Snow: Death from the Clouds - Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Surrender of Japan by Richard Overy
literaryreview.co.uk