Reviews

Terres de sang : l'Europe entre Hitler et Staline by Timothy Snyder

wargortarg's review against another edition

4.0

Excellent reading material for everyone in current times. The political climate in most countries today, consistently amplified by voices on social or mainstream media in the name of freedom of speech, has the capacity to be polarized and turn violent in the same way it did in the "bloodlands" between Stalin and Hitler. Does it have lessons for the victimhood and innocence perpetrated by aggressors in USA or India in the name of justifying violence towards specific communities? It does. Does it give context to how policies and laws shaped today based on an exaggerated / inaccurate history ultimately end up creating a similar status quo ripe for re-creating the history (albeit with different victims)? Yes it does. The author patiently prods through the circumstances around both the world wars identifying the complex relationship between the two dictators and the states they aimed to create. The descriptions of deaths are too graphic, but have to be read and understood. There are rarely any stories of heroism or any in-depth analysis of the root of anti-semitism, which I felt the readers could have benefitted from.

keaira_zakir's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Murder, and War

Moderate: Child death, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Cannibalism, and Colonisation

sakahi's review against another edition

1.0

I tried. I read about 70 pages of this book.
Repetitive: So many numbers repeated very frequently. I get it. A lot of people died in Ukraine. Telling me the same numbers over and over again just made me cranky and did not bring home the point.
More academic than I wanted: much more of a numbers book - less with the personal histories and stories.

msrbooks's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

5.0

Timothy Snyder makes history interesting and gives us parallels to what is happening currently. 

derickanderson05's review against another edition

4.0

4 stars because it is very dense for a non-historically minded reader. However, this is one of those books that everyone needs to read. It’s maddening, utterly heartbreaking, and mentally taxing to get through at times, but this sheds new light on the most horrific event in human history. The unimaginable suffering and death that the people of “the bloodlands” were subjected to under the Nazi and Soviet regimes is a story that we must never let die. This book is also helpful in understanding the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

drjonty's review against another edition

5.0

Vital

An amazing book about a horrific time of bloodletting and horror. It is vital, cogent and humane. Unfortunately it also serves as a warning to what is happening today. The victim hood which creates more horror.

zarecki's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

Gruesome yet necessary read on the history of Eastern Europe between 1932 and 1945. 

nutmeg1013's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

4.0

jsay96's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

karen_unabridged's review against another edition

4.0

This is not light reading. One premise of this book is that I found intriguing: despite the common image of Auschwitz, most of the Jews (and others) who died never even saw a concentration camp. Purposeful starvation (and famine), mass shootings, and other policies designed to kill thousands, if not millions, were employed by both Hitler and Stalin.