Peter the Great by Robert K. Massie Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Peter the Great
Book Review: HISTORY AT ITS BEST
Summary: 5 Stars
ONE OF THE BEST IF NOT THE BEST HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHIES EVER WRITTEN ON THIS SUBJECT.ARM CHAIR HISTORIANS WILL DEVOUR AND STUDENTS OF HISTORY WILL CERTAINLY LEARN AND GAIN MUCH FROM THIS OUTSTANDING 5 STAR BOOK.SIMPLY PUT EXCELLANT..Book Review: Historical Nonfiction at its Finest
Summary: 5 Stars
It takes only a copyright page to spot something surprising about Robert K. Massie's Peter the Great: His Life and World. Penned by an American historian amidst the 1981 tensions of a misguided, pseudo-war, it turns out to be an eloquent and erudite narrative of the man who progressed his primitive realm. Though the author does sidestep the Russophobic tendencies that will soon send Palmer's A History of the Modern World's into textbook retirement, Massie cannot escape the influence of his environment. Put simply, Massie is an American historian writing for an American audience--and with His Life and World, he delivers a beautiful American tribute to a beautiful albeit un-American man.
All in all, this book is fantastic. Its narrative format makes it both readable and relatable to audiences spanning the historiographical spectrum--students, teachers, casual readers, and the like. Massie's work demands neither a background in Russian history nor, quite frankly, an interest. Perhaps the most brilliant aspect of Massie's work is its ability to induce its reader's interest. Though I began Peter with my own set of preconceived notions (What could an American author know about a Russian hero? Will it be yet another piece of the Cold War's anti-Russian propaganda?), I am glad to say that Peter the Great: His Life and World tops my list of favorite books of all time.
Before Peter, foreign relations were seen as "necessary evil[s]" (Massie, 165); unorthodox obsessions with the Orthodox Church fed both to and off of a self-defeating xenophobia; beards were blessed as "fundamental symbol[s] of pride and religious respect" (Massie, 229); and monarchs, fearing for their lives, were powerless to the demands of their own soldiers. Peter took control of his church, his people, and his armed forces. Peter transformed Russia into the Russian Empire--and himself, into Peter--"the Great."
To summarize, the book demands little but for the reader to pick it up. Despite its 700+ pg. length, it is a tome that is almost impossible to put down until the end.
Highlights:
- Peter's fascinating albeit at times brutal childhood
- Peter as something of a self-made man
- Peter's lovable micromanagement (in a time when Louis XIV would dare not leave the comforts of his palace, Peter would traverse the difficult woodlands separating St. Petersburg and Moscow on his own horse to ensure that his namesake city would be built well)
- Peter's failed first marriage...
- ...and romantic second marriage
- Peter's efforts at Russian modernization
- Perhaps the saddest albeit most engrossing part of the narrative concerns Peter's unfortunate relationship with his son. While I hesitate to give too much away, the chapters concerning their relations is perhaps the most moving piece of nonfictional literature in existence.
Book Review: Historical non-fiction at its best
Summary: 5 Stars
The era of Peter the Great is not a period I typically read much about. However, I had read other books by Robert Massie and each time was very pleased with his level of detail and his writing style. As with Dreadnought and the others this book did not let me down. It was exceptionally well written and covered the subject both as a person and a national leader. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in history or leadership.Book Review: I think this book is great.
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is living history. After reading this book I felt as if I understood a great deal about Russia and it's people. This book brings you back into time. And really let's you know what it was like to be a leader of Russia.Book Review: Massie's detail wonderfully illuminates this page turner
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book ten or more years ago and still remember it well. It changed the way I read history. I get interested in a period a biography ends up suggesting other aspects of the time. My interest is largely in the ways personalities and intellects interact with their times and cultures to propel events. Peter the Great does a wonderful job of illustrating the times, the mindset in Russia and Europe and how this man, with one foot in the nearly tribal habits of Czarist and the other in 'modern' Europe, began to move his gigantic nation from an entirely inward view to a more global perspective. Massie is immensely readable which, for some reason,'serious' historians feel is a flaw. I've never understood the reason for that complaint. (Barbara Tuchman--Guns of August and others-- was criticized for the same trait.)His scholarship is equally huge and his scope is broad enough to understand context and narrow enough to remain a biography.
But that is not what changed my reading of history. As a not particularly crucial portion of the book, Massie describes some battles. I usually avoid military history as tactics and strategy did not appeal to me. (I read Shelby Foote's stunning 3 volumes on the Civil War and nearly collapsed from the details from one battle to the next.) Massie's descriptions not only described pincer movements and troop massing, but illuminated the reasons for military decisions, and the personalities that drove decisions. He describes the battles that make clear the abilities (or lack thereof) of the participants. His description of tactics made it clear to me for the first time the larger meaning of military efforts in the overall results--not simply victory or failure, but the impact on the battlefield and off. For example,a successful military leader can be pushed into a larger more influential political or governmental role, even if the reasons for his success do not bode well for being successful in the evolved role. I don't recall that exact circumstance [excellent general becoming a failed political leader]arising in Peter the Great, but I do remember realizing that it could. It was something I had not thought of before. He does not say "general X could not translate military maneuver into political skill". Instead he describes what happened and its result. The point is made and never a pedantic minute spent. He converted me from reading quickly through the battles of history to considering their larger import, and I am still grateful for the lesson. And, mind you, this is a relatively small element within this book. Massie enlarges your understanding of history.
His treatment of the military action is repeated in his treatment of all of Peter's life. His detail of the competing European aristocracies, the charming and much less than charming aspects of Peter's character (was Peter a humanist as Europe saw it or a man willing to casually torture others..or both?), the limits of the Czar's impulse to the modern explain the man and his time. Massie does not rely on declaring his subject, but allows the life to declare itself.
History is a story, which is part of the reason we read it. It is not a series of facts, but instead the interweaving of many facts, of which perhaps the most important are the characters and capacities of the principal players and the societies they inhabit. Massie is very, very good at keeping one finger on the psyche of the participants, another finger on the social movements, the psychology of the region or country or crowd, another finger on the technology that effects outcomes, and so on, so that when he folds his hands around the tale, you are informed of the aspects that, taken together, made history. Moreover he does it with suspense, never telling the tale too soon while hinting of direction, so that novel like, you are compelled to turn the page.
Peter the Great changed Russia forever and you will better understand that time and this one for reading it. Massie's clear, well written, well paced book and its comprehensive grasp of its subject puts it on the 'must read' list for anyone interested in history of any time or any place.