Great to be here under blue skies

I think Simon Sebag Montefiore pretty well nails some of this thinking (which reminds me of earlier left apologia for Stalin and Mao): archive.ph/2023.10.28-0...

8) "Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar" by Simon Sebag Montefiore

This was a long one, took me almost 3 years on and off to finish it. I had a problem keeping the Russian names straight sometimes, but that's a me issue

Das Buch schildert, wie totalitäre Herrschaft funktioniert. Jede Familie der Hofschranzen war von Stalins Terror betroffen und doch hinderten sie ihn nicht daran oder stürzten ihn.

Thk u

Israel has been in the news a lot for obvious reasons - this masterful history by Simon Sebag Montefiore is both a compelling telling of the city's contested history over the last 3000 plus years, and a plea for some kind of two-state solution