Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $11.93 You Save: $8.07 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $8.11 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Peter the Great: His Life and World
Book Review: Good some parts are more like a novel than history
Summary: 5 Stars
Before Peter the Great Russia was a backward kingdom. The predominant power in the north of Europe was Sweden. It controlled territory in what has become the Baltic States. Russia had not incorporated modern military technology and the power of the Czar was limited by the power of the nobles. Peter as a young man narrowly escaped death at the hands of his fathers bodyguard. These were a hereditary class. On taking power he had them killed. He grew up with a keen desire to destroy the old system. To do this he had to re-make the entire Russian order. What he did was to create a table of ranks which meant that everyone in Russia had a defined legal position but owed the state obligations. This enabled him to increase the revenue available to him and to start to build a modern army.
He introduced the flintlock into Russia to replace the matchlock. He hired Europeans to train and drill his army so that it could compete with the European powers. He then started a war with Sweden. Initially Russia suffered a number of defeats but eventually he was able to defeat the Swedes at the battle of Poltva and remove them from Northern Europe. He also moved the capital of Russia to the Baltic creating he city of Petrograd.
He created the state which conquered one of he largest empires of all time under his successors.
A book on this subject could not fail to be interesting. Peter's life however was like something out of a soap opera. One of the more interesting parts is how he coped with finding that his wife was not a virgin when he married her and he also executed his son. He was clearly an alcoholic and some of the accounts of his diplomatic missions are highly amusing.
Although not an academic history a fascinating account of a time in history which most have forgotten.
Book Review: Grand, Majesterial Sweep of 17th Century Russia
Summary: 5 Stars
Massie's book on Peter the Great has enjoyed many reprints and it is unlikely to be bested by other biographers. One may get a better measure of the man engaging in the most current excesses of the psychological biography, but Massie is really most strong in describing the world Peter lived within. The world before the reforms Peter undertook, and the reforms that manifested themselves in generating what we now take to be the geographic entity called Russia.
Peter took Russia from a central hermitised kingdom, with little use for the outside world, pressed in on the North by Sweden (Northern Europe's greatest power) and in the South by the Turks and their vassal Tartary States, and enlargened its boundaries, modernised its military, reformed all aspects of bureaucratic rule. Peter did this by emulating the rulers and nations he most admired, mainly the Dutch and the English. He incorporated foreigners into his xenophobic court and he built a military corps able to defeat the troops of Charles the XII at the battle of Poltava in 1709.
There is much to feast upon in this book and for those who thought that European History in the 17th Century was limited to Louis XIV and Prince Billy at the Boyne... well this is quite another world. One where the two greatest land powers of the world, Russia and Sweden, ultimately face off against each other for control of North Central Europe and the Baltic. Massie admirably portrays these two personalities and one would be forgiven if one thinks that it is a dual biography between the covers of a single book.
Massie is wonderful in his description of the rather novel nature of the Battle of Poltava, Charles' defeat and subsequent attempts to form another army to take back the Baltic. Peter builds his city on the Baltic within a single generation using the Italian architechs and the best stonemasons in Europe. He builds a fleet that ultimately defends this new capital -- allowing Russia for the first time to peer out to the West and all it has to offer.
Peter is a sympathetic character, but he is neither a product of contemporary attempts to make him appear more "human" nor is he totally immune to the some of the barbaric excesses central asia has well become known for... and when dissent and army disrule rear their heads, he acts. He also ultimate condemns his own son to death (well within the Russian tradition of Kings killing their sons cf. Ivan the Terrible) -- though how he ultimately died, whether beaten with a knout or dying naturally, can not be reliably ascertained.
This is the kind of grand history that historians should aspire to. It is the kind that keeps a person glued to their chair on cold nights in front of the fire... it is the kind where meaning and understanding emulate and are generated from the success of the perky prose, well fitted for man they are intended to explain.
A wonderful read.
Book Review: Great Biography!
Summary: 5 Stars
This was not only one of the best and most exhaustive books written about a world leader, but also one of the best biographies I have ever read. Clear, informative, well researched and most important of all- entertaining! you don't have to be a scholar or even a history buff to enjoy this book.Book Review: Great Book!
Summary: 4 Stars
Possibly the best biography I have read.Book Review: Great Book!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is an awesome one. Massie is a masterful story teller. I believe that he is an excellent historian who tells a story much like a great fictional novel and not shallow fiction at that. If you want an in depth look at Peter the Great and Russian and European history of the time, buy this book!