Scan barcode
A review by lizbarr
Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie
3.0
The parts I read, I really loved. But large chunks of the book were taken up with detailed battle scenes, and I can’t get my head around that sort of thing. So there was skimming. But the bits I read, I really enjoyed, especially how Peter the Great was … well, quite good at being a Tsar, but also good at lots of other things. While also being prone to tantrums, torture, snap executions. You know.
One omission that I found frustrating, though, was women. I know the book is called Peter the Great, but the lives of Russian women changed drastically in just a generation — and there’s nothing about how they felt or experienced these changes. (I hit up the bookstores and libraries, but it looks like, as far as English-language popular histories are concerned, Russian women were invented with the Bolshevik Revolution.) I’m hoping that Massie’s book on Catherine the Great covers this area a bit, but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.
One omission that I found frustrating, though, was women. I know the book is called Peter the Great, but the lives of Russian women changed drastically in just a generation — and there’s nothing about how they felt or experienced these changes. (I hit up the bookstores and libraries, but it looks like, as far as English-language popular histories are concerned, Russian women were invented with the Bolshevik Revolution.) I’m hoping that Massie’s book on Catherine the Great covers this area a bit, but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.