Reviews for Beatrice Webb: A Life

The average rating for Beatrice Webb: A Life based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-12-04 00:00:00 Kimberley Hunter Growing up, I kept on hearing about how she was evil personified, while many of the other communist leaders got a lighter treatment. There is little information about her and this book finally clarified some things. In fact she was a moderate, well as moderate as a Stalinist could be, a complex personality, a great politician, and also she was afraid, very very afraid, like most people at the time. Now by her competence, she did have a great role when it comes to bringing a murderous regime to the country and she honestly believed in it. But some of the vitriol she receives now derives from anti-Jewish propaganda at the time. It is good to get a little nuance. Again, not that she should be hailed as a hero or something, but the other dudes around her should not get away scot-free. I wish there was a bit more info about her personal life and psychology, it helps a lot with understanding things.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-03-02 00:00:00 Debbie Mcevoy Ana Pauker was a Romanian Communist leader who rose to power during the murderous dictatorship of Josef Stalin in the Soviet Union. Whatever good deeds she performed will be forever overshadowed by her complicity with Stalinism. That said, Ana Pauker was a relatively humane voice in Romanian politics. At times she had the courage to defy the party line. She opposed forced collectivization of peasant farms. She opposed punishment of Spanish Civil war and French resistance veterans. ( Stalin wanted to liquidate those courageous leftist fighters.) She advocated liberal policies for Romanian Jews who wanted to emigrate to Israel. And she never completely abandoned the ties to her orthodox Jewish family, though her true religion remained Communism, even after she was purged. On a personal level, I was interested in the plight of Romanian Jews, especially during the early 19th century. My father's Jewish family left Romania about that time and came to the United States.