About halfway through Ronald Grigor Suny's new biography of early Stalin, Stalin: Passage to Revolution. This was released a month ago and covers his life until 1917 (when the Bolsheviks came to power).

So far I can say it is not strictly a biography of Stalin. Suny doesn't just look at what he did and go from there. Instead he's giving context to why Stalin (who was still Jughashvili at this time) did what he did. So he's looking at the struggle between socialists in the Russian Empire, the split between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, how growing up in Georgia and attending the Tiflis Seminary, and so on, all factored into his life. Suny honestly really gives little look at the personal life of Stalin, which has been done before several times (I commented before there are at least four books on this period of his life, including this one, and I own/have read three of them, again including this one).

While Kotkin did something similar in his first volume, he looked at a larger picture of Russia in a global context, which is understandable as he is not familiar with the Caucasus, at least not like Suny. That Suny reads Georgian also helps, as he consistently is citing Georgian-language sources, which is something I specifically noticed Kotkin did not do much of (Montefiore did in his book, but again he doesn't read Georgian and had help with translating).

All said, this is a good angle to take. I remember telling my brother I was buying this book, and he asked what new things could possibly be included. Well I have an answer for him, and am looking forward to the last half (I'm at roughly 1908, so have quite a bit of interesting stuff to cover still).

Can anyone recommend a book or books on peddling and peddlers? Any time period or location is fine. I just read T.H. Breen's "The Marketplace of Revolution," and it got me interested in finding out more about the peddlers he briefly mentioned, both their lives and their role in the economy. Unfortunately, his sources for the topic are either very specific or only tangentially about peddlers, and trying my own hand at research led to books mostly about "peddlers of men" or "peddlers of war," etc.

For those who are looking for an interesting and entertaining read, i highly recommend Irreverent Persia: Invective, Satirical and Burlesque Poetry from the Origins to the Timurid Period. It's a book about medieval Persian satire and insult poetry, and a lot of these poems are extremely funny.

I need reading about moral panics, mass hysterias, and emotional contagions.

I also am interested in blood feuds and honor cultures.

Are there any alternatives to 'Britain After Rome' by Robin Fleming (400 to 1100ish)?

This is the second in the Penguin History of Britain series, however is not available in ebook. Are there any quality alternatives which cover Britain between about the 5th and 12th centuries, post the fall of Rome?

Thanks.

I’ve got a post up for this but I’d figured I’d put it here as well.

Thoughts on The Puritans: A Transatlantic History by David D. Hall for someone new to American religious history?