| An eminent historian of Russia, Harvard professor, and adviser to the Reagan White House looks back on his own life and on the tumultuous twentieth century. "It is hard to imagine a more interesting life, or one better told.""--Economist ""Perhaps the most refreshing and valuable memoir to emerge from Washington in many years."--Martin Rubin, "San Francisco Chronicle ""Pipes has lived a rich, meaningful life, . . . and he has the ability to recount it, richly and meaningfully."--Jay Nordlinger, "National Review ""A gracefully written account."--Fred Siegel, "Washington Post Book World" |
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From the Publisher:
Sixteen-year-old Richard Pipes escaped from Nazi-occupied Warsaw with his family in October 1939. Their flight took them to the United States by way of Italy, and Pipes went on to earn a college degree, join the U.S. Air Corps, serve as professor of Russian history at Harvard for nearly forty years, and become adviser to President Reagan on Soviet and Eastern European affairs. In this engrossing book, the eminent historian remembers the events of his own remarkable life as well as the unfolding of some of the twentieth century's most extraordinary political events.|From his youthful memories of bombs falling on Warsaw to his recollections of the conflicts inside the Reagan administration over American policies toward the USSR, Pipes offers penetrating observations as well as fascinating portraits of such cultural and political figures as Isaiah Berlin, Ronald Reagan, and Alexander Haig. Perhaps most interesting of all, Pipes depicts his evolution as a historian and his understanding of how history is witnessed and how it is recorded. |
Praise
"As I am one [Pipes] has often chastised...I approached his book warily. But against my will I enjoyed most of it. Pipes has not acquired the plastic veneer of most public men in America. He tells things as he sees them...and he does not touch up his self-portrait. And he's an iconoclast, a trait I have always found attractive." - Sheila Fitzpatrick 08/19/2004
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