Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I read the books written by this author on the Russian revolution and the start of world war 1 and found them to be basically sound and pleasant to read although nothing new on the subject matter they represented introductions to the subject matter. I was looking forward to reading about Stalin’s War and quite frankly I am shocked at the cavalier disregard for context put forth in this book. Make no mistake when the author states that it is not a military history he is telling the truth 100% so don’t expect any further elucidation on that subject. This is nothing less than a right wing hit job on the Roosevelt and Churchill administrations and manages to disparage Hitler as a dupe of Stalin. ImGine disparaging Hitler! Who would of thought?Everyone is a dupe of Stalin in this book. The entire Western alliance is shot through with communist agents not simply spying but influencing the course of decision making for strategy, economic policy and operational military plans. We are treated to such gems as England had plans to and should have attacked Russia in early 1940, while already at war with Germany in response to Stalin’s land grabs in the east. His is a missed opportunity. Stalin also baited Hitler into attacking Russia due to land grabs in the Balkan’s. Stalin encouraged the Japanese attack on America by deliberately signing a nonaggression pact while the German army was 40 miles from Moscow. Stalin sabotaged he British plan for a military thrust into Germany from Italy to retain influence in the Balkan’s by duping FDR at Teheran. The list of idiocy goes on and on. It is not that the author doesn’t present facts, however the facts are way out context and do not represent scholarship. This , again, a right wing hit job on the Western alliance and especially the Roosevelt administration. Full of conspiracy theories, devoid of anything which can remotely be considered scholarship. I confess I am about two thirds through the book and seriously doubt I will be able to complete it without getting sick. What a disgrace. There is plenty of discussion of lend lease which is interesting and that is why I gave one star. However I plan to to further research into lend lease because this author does not warrant credibility based on the absurd implications he draws from his limited point of view. How in the world fox Anthony Beevor recommend this book? How can Montefiore? I understand the recommendation from a representative of the WSJ which is predictable and the one from Tolstoy who is anti-Stalin but doesn’t have anything to say about the Western alliance. Those who gave recommendations did alert the potential reader to the ‘revisionist and ‘original’ nature of the book but this is hardly what one encounters once one enters this quagmire of distorted story telling which cannot be considered history in any sense of the word. The author is somewhat aware of what he is doing since he is careful most time to backfill his most absurd contentions by qualifying language sensing he is out on a limb. But the overall effect is clear. He at one point disparages ‘Cold War rhetoric, but that is exactly what he is engaged in. Stalin was a greater criminal than Hitler before Hitler and anyone who reads seriously about history is fully aware of that fact. They were both criminals. When Hitler attacked the west sides had to be chosen and realpolitik was king. This was true and entered into the decision making for all the countries of the world in 1939. This author simply prefers the right wing dictators to the left wing dictators. All the dictators, right and left, duped the fools running the democratic governments. What rubbish.