John Lukacs
Capsule Review
Nov/Dec
2008
Essay
Fall
1992
"The historical nature and development of Finnish-Russian relations... should tell us not only some things about Finland but also some seldom-recognized things about Russian foreign policy under Stalin".
Capsule Review
Summer
1991
Essay
Fall
1989
The two world wars are the mountain ranges that dominate the historical landscape of the twentieth century. We still live in their shadows, in America as well as in Europe. Only with these wars did European and American history begin to coincide. The revolutions of 1820, 1830, 1848 and the wars leading to the unification of Italy and Germany marked the nineteenth century in European history, while the major events in American history were the westward movement, the Civil War and mass immigration. These events had certain transatlantic connections, yet not decisive ones. But in the twentieth century the two world wars have been the main events in the history of Europe and America as well.
Essay
Fall
1986
Offers "an argument for the necessity of an historical perspective" in the analysis of Soviet conduct, tracing the competition between Soviet communism and Soviet state nationalism from 1917 to the present day, with Stalin's purges of 1937-39 seen as the turning point -- "the rise of a state, rather than party, bureaucracy". Soviet conduct since WW2 has been dominated by geo-political considerations, not ideology. The American perception of an ideologically-driven Soviet Union is dangerous.
Capsule Review
Winter
1984
