Karl Schloegel is Professor of Eastern European History at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt. His book Moscow 1937 was awarded the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding in 2009.
Best Summer Books of 2021, Financial Times Tantalising -Financial Times Engrossing -Morning Star Superb... a splendidly pungent area for exploration -The Spectator Schloegel is a master storyteller. -Frankfurter Rundschau A fascinating journey through scent. -Neue Zurcher Zeitung am Sonntag This book demonstrates once again Karl Schloegel's remarkable ability to make the whole of society visible in the most inconspicuous details. -Suddeutsche Zeitung Schloegel has captured the scent of the 'Age of Extremes' - too much may give you a headache but a short burst is stimulating and intoxicating. -Deutschlandfunk Kultur No historian I know combines creativity in conception and fastidiousness of research like Karl Schloegel. This book is a surprise and an education. It is also a great pleasure to read. -Timothy Snyder, Yale University 'A drop of perfume can hold the entire history of the twentieth century', writes Karl Schloegel - and so it does. In this elegant, enticing, slim book, Schloegel, one of the great historians of the Soviet experiment, shifts his gaze to the world of luxury scents. With grace and intent, he moves the reader between a convent orphanage in France and an impoverished shtetl in the Pale of Settlement, between Parisian salons and Politburo meetings at the Kremlin. Bolshevism, Nazism and Stalinism emerge as olfactory experiences, in which the fragrant and the putrid are not easily uncoupled. -Marci Shore, author of The Taste of Ashes: The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe ... a tale of revolution, war and spies.... -The Sydney Morning Herald ... a compelling story full of twists and tragedies... fascinating. -Bois De Jasmin A captivating historical account of the personal lives and political intrigue surrounding two perfumery legends. -Beauty Matter There is much to praise about The Scent of Empires, but above all Schloegel's ability to breathe new life into well-trodden avenues of historical study is particularly commendable. -The Russian Review Karl Schloegel is a true public intellectual. -Society