'A wonderful sketch of Lenin’s life and times, illustrating both Lenin’s complex personality and his remarkable insights ... With an excellent timeline, biographic sketches of the main characters, and a thorough bibliography ... this book is perhaps the best introduction to Lenin available in English.'
Michael D. Yates, Director of Monthly Review Press and author of 'Can the Working Class Change the World?'
'Well-researched and dutifully contextualized, Le Blanc paints a striking portrait of Lenin as an unwavering champion of democracy.'
Cliff Connolly, 'Cosmonaut'
'Fantastic, very interesting and important for our times.'
Tamás Krausz, author of 'Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography'
'Brilliant … a tireless catalogue on the past and future of Lenin, Leninism, and revolution, offering indispensable insights into what is to be done amid the cascading catastrophes of today and tomorrow.'
Ankica Čakardić, author of 'Like a Clap of Thunder: Three Essays on Rosa Luxemburg'
'Historian and activist Paul Le Blanc considers what the author of 'What is to be Done' has to say to today's radicals. What emerges are valuable contributions to the struggle against the ongoing catastrophes of war, poverty and climate chaos.'
Alex de Jong, co-director of International Institute for Research and Education, Amsterdam
'In lucid, jargon-free prose, Paul Le Blanc forces us to question what we thought we knew about the great revolutionary. Unpicking tenacious myths in a reasoned and discriminating tone, 'Lenin' is un-hagiographic and sometimes even impious. The result is a Lenin ripe for rediscovery, whose ideas are less distant than we might think.'
Alan Wald, H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan
'An incisive, engaging overview of Lenin and his revolutionary ideas.'
Eric Blanc, author of 'Revolutionary Social Democracy: Working-Class Politics Across the Russian Empire, 1882-1917'
'A welcome gift: guidance from a generous, experienced, and wise comrade when we need it most. Highlighting Lenin's flexibility and cultivation of collective leadership, Le Blanc brings out the practical activism, principled politics, and revolutionary patience crucial to organizing the oppressed on a rapidly over-heating planet.'
Jodi Dean, author of 'Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging'
'This fresh and nuanced examination … is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Lenin's historical role and his relevance to today's movements for transformative change.'
Ian Angus, author of 'The War Against the Commons: Dispossession and Resistance in the Making of Capitalism'
'Crackling with intellectual life … Paul confronts opposing views, brings in evocative quotations from dead witnesses and living scholars, and wrestles with the most difficult interpretive questions. Don’t read this book to learn ‘the truth about Lenin’, read it to enter into Lenin’s world and to face the choices that he too faced.'
Lars T. Lih, author of 'Lenin Rediscovered'
'From feminists to environmental activists, from trade unionists to those active in the movement for Black Lives, or justice for Trans, there's something here for all who believe that forging revolution and transformation of society will be necessary to … win liberation for all humanity.'
Linda Loew, longtime socialist, feminist and union activist
'Produced, with great skill – a compressed and very readable account of Lenin's life and ideas which is honest, attractive, and non-hagiographical.'
Mike Taber, editor, 'Under the Socialist Banner: Resolutions of the Second International, 1889-1912'
