Books: December 2022

Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s — Sheila Fitzpatrick

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great book, lots of surprising anecdotes and stories from a “bottom-up” perspective in the 1930s. Contrasts the conventional wisdom of Stalin leading everyone by the nose through state terror. In fact, so much of the state terror was intra-elite (esp. the military).

Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada (Nation Books) — Wendy Pearlman

⭐⭐⭐ We need more books in this format (long-form interviews).