{"product_id":"khrushchev-4","title":"Khrushchev","description":"‘Taubman delivers a political and biographical tour de force, something approaching a definitive work' \u003cb\u003eSimon Sebag-Montefiore, The \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘Outstanding, superbly gripping and surely definitive’ \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eDaily Telegraph \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 'Taubman has produced an utterly convincing picture of the contradictory Khrushchev, from his peasant origins and meteoric rise, through purges, politburo plotting, brave de-Stalinisation and the erratic, blustering, bull-in-a-china-shop style that eventually alienated his colleagues and took the world to the brink of Armageddon over Cuba' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘Unlikely to be surpassed any time soon either in richness or complexity . . . [A] monumental biography’ \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWilliam Taubman's \u003c\/b\u003ebrilliant biography of one of the key figures of the \u003cb\u003eSoviet Union\u003c\/b\u003e is a study in contrasts -- how the boy from a peasant background rose to the heights of power; how a single-minded, ambitious political player survived twenty years under \u003cb\u003eStalin\u003c\/b\u003e; how he opened up to the West after Stalin's death and yet brought the world close to oblivion in the \u003cb\u003eCuban Missile Crisis\u003c\/b\u003e. What emerges is a fascinating picture of a man constantly torn between benevolence and malevolence -- a man who made himself cultured and yet who could never really escape his image as a bullying country bumpkin (most famously demonstrated by his interruption of \u003cb\u003eMacmillan\u003c\/b\u003e's speech to the UN in 1960 by banging his shoe on the table -- the urbane Macmillan responded, 'Mr President, perhaps we could have a translation, I could not quite follow'). \u003cb\u003eWilliam Taubman\u003c\/b\u003e has previously edited collections of \u003cb\u003eNikita Khrushchev's\u003c\/b\u003e speeches and reminiscences and is completely immersed in this subject -- his biography is likely to remain the standard work for years to come.","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57260656001368,"sku":"9781471170041","price":31.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781471170041_cafebe8d-141d-4cf1-816f-5770592b8322.jpg?v=1778824891","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/khrushchev-4","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}