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A History of Soviet Russia #9-10
Foundations of a Planned Economy, 1926-1929, Volume 1
1539 Combined Pages
1108 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1978
144 people want to read
About the author
Edward Hallett Carr
155 books236 followersEdward Hallett Carr was a liberal realist and later left-wing British historian, journalist and international relations theorist, and an opponent of empiricism within historiography.
Carr was best known for his 14-volume history of the Soviet Union, in which he provided an account of Soviet history from 1917 to 1929, for his writings on international relations, and for his book What Is History?, in which he laid out historiographical principles rejecting traditional historical methods and practices.
Educated at Cambridge, Carr began his career as a diplomat in 1916. Becoming increasingly preoccupied with the study of international relations and of the Soviet Union, he resigned from the Foreign Office in 1936 to begin an academic career. From 1941 to 1946, Carr worked as an assistant editor at The Times, where he was noted for his leaders (editorials) urging a socialist system and an Anglo-Soviet alliance as the basis of a post-war order. Afterwards, Carr worked on a massive 14-volume work on Soviet history entitled A History of Soviet Russia, a project that he was still engaged in at the time of his death in 1982. In 1961, he delivered the G. M. Trevelyan lectures at the University of Cambridge that became the basis of his book, What is History?. Moving increasingly towards the left throughout his career, Carr saw his role as the theorist who would work out the basis of a new international order.
Carr was best known for his 14-volume history of the Soviet Union, in which he provided an account of Soviet history from 1917 to 1929, for his writings on international relations, and for his book What Is History?, in which he laid out historiographical principles rejecting traditional historical methods and practices.
Educated at Cambridge, Carr began his career as a diplomat in 1916. Becoming increasingly preoccupied with the study of international relations and of the Soviet Union, he resigned from the Foreign Office in 1936 to begin an academic career. From 1941 to 1946, Carr worked as an assistant editor at The Times, where he was noted for his leaders (editorials) urging a socialist system and an Anglo-Soviet alliance as the basis of a post-war order. Afterwards, Carr worked on a massive 14-volume work on Soviet history entitled A History of Soviet Russia, a project that he was still engaged in at the time of his death in 1982. In 1961, he delivered the G. M. Trevelyan lectures at the University of Cambridge that became the basis of his book, What is History?. Moving increasingly towards the left throughout his career, Carr saw his role as the theorist who would work out the basis of a new international order.
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May 19, 2022
I've been reading the nine Pelican volumes of E.H Carr's History of Soviet Russia in the wrong order for a while, picking them up at random second-hand (with their great classic Pelican covers). They're out of print I think, which is interesting for such a grand project - I suspect it's because his evident belief that the founding of the Soviet system and economy was of world-historical importance is now v much a matter of opinion. They usually have a lot of very interesting material and go into a lot of depth on some very important debates, but they're always very dry, and none more so than this one, written with R.W Davies - nearly 1000 pages on the Soviet economy as it goes from guided market to plan. Good on how much the government and its experts were very aware the great advance would be on the back of the workers and peasants but honestly a real slog, patently specialists-only.
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