Neal Ascherson's Review of Deutscher's Trotsky

[Laurence Shute <lshute@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Neal Ascherson has a good review of the paperback re-issue of Deutscher's
trilogy on Trotsky in the London Review of Books.  Ascherson concludes with:

"Deutscher's 'victory in defeat' summary to his trilogy rests, in the end,
on the hope that Soviet Communism is reformable, and on simple awe. 'It
cannot be, it would be contrary to all historical sense, that so high an
intellectual energy, so prodigious an activity, and so noble a martyrdom
should not have their full impact eventually.' No? All that can be said is
that when the unimaginable climate of revolution returns, as in some shape
it will, young men and women will read and understand Trotsky and Deutscher
as we no longer can."

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n23/asch01_.html

Larry Shute
Emeritus, Economics
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona