Catherine the Great's linguistic contribution Book

In a bibliographical note after the final chapter, de Madariaga says that the fact that this book has no footnotes was a deliberate choice as she meant it to be an introductory survey rather than an academic history. While I have not read some of the many other biographies of Catherine the Great that are available and which are much longer (by Massie, Dixon, Troyat, and Alexander, among others), this was at a level that was suitable for my IB Diploma high school history students. Most chapters are around 12 to 18 pages in length, so quite manageable, although footnotes would have given them a truer picture of how a historian presents her work. Nonetheless, I appreciated her clear writing and the way the chapters, while primarily chronological, are also thematic in the way they are titled and arranged. Thus it was easy to skip certain chapters while at the same time being able to focus on the political, economic or social aspects of her reign. Also, while de Madariaga does not shy away from discussing her many lovers, she is more interested in looking at Catherine's accomplishments and providing a balanced account of her years in power.