Robert K. Massie (1929–2019)
Autor/a de Nicholas and Alexandra
Sobre l'autor
Robert Kinloch Massie III (1929-) is an American historian, author, Pulitzer Prize recipient. He has devoted much of his career to studying the House of Romanov, Russia's royal family from 1613-1917. Massie was born in Lexington, Kentucky. He spent much of his youth in Nashville, Tennessee and mostra'n més currently resides in the village of Irvington, New York. He studied United States and modern European history at Yale and Oxford University, respectively, on a Rhodes Scholarship. Massie went to work as a journalist for Newsweek from 1959 to 1962 and then took a position at the Saturday Evening Post. In 1969 he wrote and published his breakthrough book, Nicholas and Alexandra. Massie was the president of the Authors Guild from 1987 to 1991, and he still serves as a council member. While president of the Guild, he famously called on authors to boycott any store refusing to carry Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. His title Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra'n menys
Sèrie
Obres de Robert K. Massie
Obres associades
Booknotes: America's Finest Authors on Reading, Writing, and the Power of Ideas (1997) — Col·laborador — 422 exemplars
Etiquetat
Coneixement comú
- Data de naixement
- 1929-01-05
- Data de defunció
- 2019-12-2
- Gènere
- male
- Nacionalitat
- USA
- País (per posar en el mapa)
- USA
- Lloc de naixement
- Versailles, Kentucky, USA
- Lloc de defunció
- Irvington, New York, USA
- Educació
- Yale University
Membres
Ressenyes
Most of the book had me very interested. I don't know much about Russian history and it was nice to learn so many new things. I had to force myself near the end unfortunately. Also, I was not at all interested in the sexual deviancy of a philosopher. It wasn't necessary to add those details, in my opinion.
The author explores the naval history of Britain & Germany leading up to the eve of the World War 1. Beginning with Nelson up to Churchill in the development of reforming & upgrading the navy to keep up with the German attempt to develop the navy in Germany. An excellent work & detailed with individuals both military, governmental, & competing monarchs in their attempt to gain mastery of Europe.
I don't know why I didn't post a review for myself here. Probably because I (rightly, so far) knew this book had ignited an undying passion in me for more Massie and more Habsburgs. I am waiting for my next cycle of biography and/or history thirst to read another Massie book, but I spent atweeks delving into wikipedia and its bibliography lists/links all while filling my "Kim Academy" journal with notes. I think about Catherine often.
Llistes
Premis
Potser també t'agrada
Autors associats
Estadístiques
- Obres
- 17
- També de
- 7
- Membres
- 12,972
- Popularitat
- #1,801
- Valoració
- 4.2
- Ressenyes
- 287
- ISBN
- 179
- Llengües
- 14
- Preferit
- 32
- Pedres de toc
- 388
The animated film Anastasia got the entire story wrong, sadly. The writers didn't even try for accuracy, apparently - very sad to me, because I really liked that movie.
Massie details the true story here, and though I normally don't like history texts, I liked this one. His writing is very readable, and I learned a lot. (Particularly about the events leading up to the war; and about Rasputin and how he came to be involved with the Imperial family. I didn't even know that Nicholas and Alexandra had a son, let alone that he suffered from hemophilia.)
At over 500 pages, though, it was still far too long for me. I felt that 50-100 pages could have easily been omitted by paring down unnecessary details of persons not central to the story.
Also, I was quite appalled when Massie at one point described Rasputin as having "good-natured aggression" right after stating that he would grab women and "start undoing buttons" without any kind of preamble or permission. Rasputin was accused of attempted rape many times, and it is not okay to write this violence off. There is no such thing as "good-natured" sexual assault or harassment.… (més)