Monday, August 27, 2007

Red Mutiny: Eleven Fateful Days on the Battleship Potemkin by Neal Bascomb

Red Mutiny: Eleven Fateful Days on the Battleship Potemkin by Neal Bascomb is a history of this famous action in the attempted Russian revolution of 1905. Bascomb starts out by saying that he is writing an unbiased history. Apparently he believes in the concept of a historian as an unbiased observer. This seems rather silly. The description of the treatment of the sailors prior to the mutiny is very well-done as well as the reaction of the Russian czar. However Bascomb tends to lean a little heavy on fictional reconstruction. There's internal monologue of individuals as well as a substantial amount of direct quotes. Much of these are not footnoted. The book contains short biographies of important individuals, notes and a large bibliography which I will be using to track down more material.

Recommended with caveats. Definitely more of a "popular history" then scholarly.

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