I think at minimum the prologue to And the Band Played On should be required reading for everyone, especially since the COVID pandemic. It truly is haunting.

(Teaching this book in the spring.)

This is tangential to the argument presented in the article but I came across my mentors name and I burst into tears. That’s probably why my Russian historical training was very much about its Imperial project. I’m glad that Mark von Hagen is mentioned because he was an amazing teacher and scholar.