Hughes’s thorough and scholarly account is certain to become the leading study of one of Russia’s most fascinating and significant periods. Peter the Great, the charismatic Russian ruler who introduced a program of westernization at the turn on the 18th century, has long been a focus for historians, biographers, and politicians. Here Hughes (Russian History/University of London) has produced the first truly comprehensive English-language account of Peter’s reign and both its immediate and long-term effects. Drawing on newly available archival sources and an exhaustive body of secondary literature, Hughes places Peter the Great’s reign within its historical context, both national and international. Then, in a dozen extensively footnoted and delineated chapters, she undertakes a programmatic study of Peter and his reign, covering the Petrine military and governmental institutions, the economy, the arts, education, and religion. Each chapter is a masterful and balanced account that blends the critical and the narrative with a direct and entertaining style. Despite sometimes limited sources, Hughes also examines popular culture, including often neglected subjects such as the role of women, pretense and disguise, and life at the Petrine court (drinking, dwarves, dress, and the like). A final section includes several biographical chapters on Peter and his family that exhibit the author’s ongoing attempt to address and correct common misconceptions, which particularly abound in debates about Peter’s domineering personality. As throughout her study, Hughes remains fair and judicious, arguing repeatedly that the reality of Peter the Great is far more complex than the “plain man image” often promoted. Above all, Hughes consistently argues for an interpretation that recognizes the blend of the pragmatic and the inspired that characterized Peter and his actions. A remarkable work of scholarship that will open for English-speakers the full scope of Petrine Russia. (28 illustrations)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-300-07539-1
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
