Best Selling Books by Edward Crankshaw

The Grim story of the most vicious Terror Agency of all time-Its sinister Power and Barbaric acts, and the twisted men who led it-Hitler, Himmler, and Eichmann. This is the brutal expose of the rotten core of Nazi Germany. Here is revealed the true story of Hitler''s terror police, the in-famous Gestapo-the madmen who headed it, the sadists who staffed it, the degenerate party that spawned it.

The awesome figure of Otto von Bismarck, the ''Iron Chancellor'', dominated Europe in the late 19th century. His legendary political genius and ruthless will engineered Prussia''s stunning defeat of the Austrian Empire and, in 1871, led to his most dazzling achievement - the defeat of France and the unification of Germany. In this highly acclaimed biography, first published in 1981, Edward Crankshaw provides a perceptive look at the career of the First Reich''s mighty founder - at his brilliant abilities and severe limitations and at the people who granted him the power to transform the shape and destiny of Europe. "Bismark is a biographical masterpiece, an opus that is truly magnificent." -The Spectator

This is the story of the rise and fall of one man against the background of his country''s history - bloody, tumultuous, yet immensely significant - since the revolution in 1917. Nikita Sergei Khrushchev was born in 1894, the child of peasants driven from the land by poverty. The infant Khrushchev was one of a vast family of nearly one hundred million peasants, mainly illiterate, latterly liberated from serfdom. He was a child without history, and as an infant, lucky to survive. Sixty years later, nevertheless, he was to become the dominant leader of the Soviet Empire. In this biography Edward Crankshaw describes how this was achieved. Crankshaw provides a vivid and convincing appreciation of Khrushchev''s extraordinary and contradictory character within the context of Russian history and society. "[Khrushchev''s] career is sketched and his personality analyzed in vivid, readable book by the British Kremlinologist." -Chicago Tribune

Tolstoy was not always an old man-not always a bearded patriarch fixing the world with the eye of an angry ancient mariner. He started War and Peace when he was thirty five, and Anna Karenina was finished before he was fifty. By then he had fulfilled his genius and deployed all those elements of his titanic temperament which made him world famous. In a richly detailed and sympathetic book on the most creative years of Russia''s greatest writer, Edward Crankshaw explores the world of Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, the elements in it that contributed to his great art, and the nature of the creative processes involved. Accompanied by evocative illustrations of Tolstoy''s life, Mr. Crankshaw''s text presents a development of this extraordinary man-his idyllic country childhood and his painful schooling, the wild years of conscience-stricken dissipation, the sojourn among the Cossacks in the Caucasus, the army service in the Crimean War, his entry into Moscow and St. Petersburg literary circles, his fateful marriage. It is an absorbing account which helps us to a fuller understanding of Tolstoy''s towering genius-and the limitations that went with it.

"This is a full-length study of Maria Theresa. Called to the throne in 1740, at the age of 23, she was unprepared for events that were to confront her. Her only weapons were her charm, unbreakable will, and her courage"--Publisher''s description.

First published in 1951, this book by Edward Crankshaw, a leading authority on the U.S.S.R., explores the abandonment of normative Marxism and its eventual replacement by Great Russian nationalism, the predisposition of Russian society to submit to absolute regimes, and the striking ineptitude of Stalin’s foreign policy.

Exactly 175 years ago, on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg, a failed uprising ignited a process that would, one red October, finally sweep the autocracy away. The Shadow of the Winter Palace recounts an extraordinary century of Russian history, a politically tempestuous time that was also a Golden Age of intellectual and artistic achievement—the century of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, of Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky. A master stylist and a distinguished historian, Edward Crankshaw limns dazzling portraits of the czars, the revolutionaries, and a host of other unforgettable characters—and provides a riveting, sweeping history "jam-packed with information about the past and implications for the present"(Atlantic Monthly).

Emperor Franz Josef''s struggle to hold a polyglot nation together.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

"The House of Habsburg (pron.: /hæps.br/; German pronunciation: [ha?ps.bk]), also Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and Spanish Empire and several other countries. The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a fortress built around 1020?1030 in present day Switzerland by Count Radbot of Klettgau, who chose to name his fortress Habsburg. His grandson, Otto II, was the first to take the fortress name as his own, adding "von Habsburg" to his title."--Wikipedia.

This book deals neither with the Russia of the tourist nor with that much discussed enigma, the Russia of the conference room. There is a third country, Khrushchev''s Russia, too seldom seen for what it is, too often confused with the mask it wears in the world arena. Edward Crankshaw shows that this, the real Russia, is a country of material progress and internal aims, of young people in a new mental climate, and with a dynamic leader who is first and foremost a superb practical administrator, not the showman-statesman Khrushchev often appears to us. The author gives a fascinating account of the Pasternak affair, and for this new edition he has added a chapter to bring the book completely up to date; in it he discusses the issues of the past two years or so -- the U.2 incident, the 1960 Summit fiasco, Sino-Russian stresses, Soviet space achievements, and the increasing militancy of Khrushchev''s manner and policy.

Bundel artikelen over Rusland na de tweede wereldoorlog door een Engelse journalist

An authentic record of Nikita Kruschev''s words gathered from tapes, interviews, etc.