Biographies

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Does anyone know any comprehensive biographies on the following figures?

1: Lenin
2: Joesph Stalin
3: Mao
4: James P. Cannon
5: Che Guevera

I'm looking for editions that are accurate (Not clouded by bourgeois opinion) and give a strong,detailed account of their lives and actions.

[Marxach-Léinínach]

Does anyone know any comprehensive biographies on the following figures?

1: Lenin
2: Joesph Stalin
3: Mao
4: James P. Cannon
5: Che Guevera

I'm looking for editions that are accurate (Not clouded by bourgeois opinion) and give a strong,detailed account of their lives and actions.

1. Dunno
2. I hear "Stalin: Man of History" is the most even-handed biography by a bourgeois source. Then you've got "Another View of Stalin" where the whole book is just dedicated to refuting capitalist slanders, rather than being a biography.
3. "The Battle For China's Past", although like "Another View of Stalin" it's more of a refutation of bourgeois slanders rather than a proper biography.
4. Dunno
5. "Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life"

[Queercommie Girl]

For Mao, try Mao: A Biography by Ross Terrill. This is not from a Marxist perspective, but it is relatively objective.

[graymouser]

For James P. Cannon, the best work right now is Brian Palmer's James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left. It covers Cannon's years with the IWW and the Communist Party, breaking off at the Trotskyist period. I believe Palmer intends to publish a second book dealing with his later life.

Most of the others have biographies that are tendentious in the extreme. For instance, the only bio of Lenin I ever read was Tony Cliff's, which is basically a prolonged piece arguing Cliff's distinctive view of Lenin's politics and not actually a proper biography on the man. Isaac Deutscher, who wrote the definitive bio of Trotsky, did write another on Stalin that I've isn't terrible - but I've only read Deutscher's work on Trotsky and can't vouch for the Stalin biography.

[Dean]

If you're interested in one on Marx, try the one by Isaiah Berlin.

[penguinfoot]

If you're interested in one on Marx, try the one by Isaiah Berlin.

Seriously? I wouldn't read anything by Berlin after having read Two Concepts of Liberty....I think there's a consensus that the Wheen text is the best biography on Marx at the moment. Maurice Meisner is qiote good for Mao and Schram is good for the development of his ideas if not his personal life.

[Manic Impressive]

Yeah I loved Francis Wheen's book on Marx awesome book. I read "Lenin" by Robert Service but I can't say I was hugely impressed.

[blake 3:17]

Isaac Deutscher's biography of Stalin is excellent. It's quite long but it's a good read.

I also quite liked Jorge Castaneda's bio of Che Guevara. There's another by Paco Igancio Tabio II that I've been meaning to read.

I haven't got my hands on the Cannon book yet. I believe it's a bit pricey. I heard Palmer speak on it and he did his work! It only covers the first half of his life --- the second volume will be where the sectariana flies!

There's the David Shub bio of Lenin, which is probably fairly accurate. Shub was very critical of Bolshevism -- I think he was a liberal, not sure. There's Marcel Lieberman's Leninism Under Lenin which isn't really a biography.

This is a link to a review of a left biography of Mao that is very very critical: http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article856 I haven't read it and don't know about Mao to comment.