To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

""Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction"" ""Shortlisted for the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize"" ""Shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize, Lionel Gelber Foundation"" ""Finalist for the Literary Award, Athenaeum of Philadelphia"" ""A Stevereads History Book of the Year"" ""A book about a past time that is very much a book for our time. . . . The story of the Soviet dissidents is a story from which we all stand to learn as we face a new wave of authoritarianism.""---Jeffrey C. Isaac, Los Angeles Review of Books ""[A] thoughtful, superbly researched and gracefully written study of the Russian dissident movement. . . . When we Americans are ready for our own glasnost, Mr. Nathans's riveting history of those who returned to authenticity may inspire us to do the same.""---Gary Saul Morson, Wall Street Journal ""An exhaustive chronicle of the Soviet dissident movement. . . . The movement presented a model, Nathans writes, for ‘the possibilities for public engagement under circumstances that appeared even more hopeless than our own.’""---David Kortava, New York Times ""To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause sheds light on how this seemingly marginal protest movement, largely rejected by much of the society from which it sprang, nonetheless reinvented itself at key junctures and eventually to great effect. It also sheds light on the risk-takers themselves: an extraordinary cast of characters. . . . [A] magnum opus.""---Michael David-Fox, The Nation ""[A] magisterial new history. . . . The great strength of Nathans’s account is to put the dissidents back in their own time and place.""---Stephen Lovell, Times Literary Supplement ""To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause offers refreshingly clear-eyed insights into the idiosyncratic world of those who fought for freedom behind the Iron Curtain. . . . [It] empathetically traces the stories of those who broke the rules by sticking to the law. . . . A host of original insights, shedding light on a remarkable cast of individuals who never succumbed to political apathy at a time when most did.""---Katja Hoyer, The Telegraph ""Drawing on extensive new material, including unpublished diaries, private letters, and KGB interrogation transcripts, this insightful history of Soviet dissidents introduces remarkable individuals who courageously and selflessly tried to pursue civil rights from the 1960s through the 1980s.""---Maria Lipman, Foreign Affairs ""An outstanding work of synthesis and interpretation, based on a comprehensive knowledge of the sources, [To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause] will be the definitive work on the subject for a long time to come. . . . [The] book is peppered with fascinating and sometimes touching vignettes about leading figures in the dissident movement. . . . An absorbing case study in how a creative minority can challenge the thinking of an authoritarian state.""---Philip Boobbyer, Slavonic and East European Review ""Authoritative. . . . An essential addition to the cultural history of the late Soviet era."" * Kirkus, starred review * ""An expertly conveyed history of the Soviet dissident movement and the individuals involved. For readers interested in the history of censorship, human rights, international law, or the Soviet Union. It’s one not to miss."" * Library Journal, starred review * ""Comprehensive and analytical, Benjamin Nathans’s To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause vivifies the Soviet intellectuals at the complex heart of the human-rights-oriented dissidence movement in the USSR. . . . A meticulous history of a principled movement, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause addresses efforts to protect human rights within the context of the Soviet Union."" * Foreword Reviews * ""[A] rigorous, probing, and highly engaging study."" * Choice * ""Clear, scholarly and careful, averse to jargon, shrewd about testimony, subtle in his presentation of the various figures; he has interviewed many of the dissidents himself.""---Robert Blaisdell, Russian Life ""Monumental. . . . A remarkable history of protest in Russia."" * New Indian Express * ""Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction"" ""Shortlisted for the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize"" ""Shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize, Lionel Gelber Foundation"" ""Finalist for the Literary Award, Athenaeum of Philadelphia"" ""A Stevereads History Book of the Year"" ""A book about a past time that is very much a book for our time. . . . The story of the Soviet dissidents is a story from which we all stand to learn as we face a new wave of authoritarianism.""---Jeffrey C. Isaac, Los Angeles Review of Books ""[A] thoughtful, superbly researched and gracefully written study of the Russian dissident movement. . . . When we Americans are ready for our own glasnost, Mr. Nathans's riveting history of those who returned to authenticity may inspire us to do the same.""---Gary Saul Morson, Wall Street Journal ""An exhaustive chronicle of the Soviet dissident movement. . . . The movement presented a model, Nathans writes, for ‘the possibilities for public engagement under circumstances that appeared even more hopeless than our own.’""---David Kortava, New York Times ""To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause sheds light on how this seemingly marginal protest movement, largely rejected by much of the society from which it sprang, nonetheless reinvented itself at key junctures and eventually to great effect. It also sheds light on the risk-takers themselves: an extraordinary cast of characters. . . . [A] magnum opus.""---Michael David-Fox, The Nation ""[A] magisterial new history. . . . The great strength of Nathans’s account is to put the dissidents back in their own time and place.""---Stephen Lovell, Times Literary Supplement ""To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause offers refreshingly clear-eyed insights into the idiosyncratic world of those who fought for freedom behind the Iron Curtain. . . . [It] empathetically traces the stories of those who broke the rules by sticking to the law. . . . A host of original insights, shedding light on a remarkable cast of individuals who never succumbed to political apathy at a time when most did.""---Katja Hoyer, The Telegraph ""Drawing on extensive new material, including unpublished diaries, private letters, and KGB interrogation transcripts, this insightful history of Soviet dissidents introduces remarkable individuals who courageously and selflessly tried to pursue civil rights from the 1960s through the 1980s.""---Maria Lipman, Foreign Affairs ""An outstanding work of synthesis and interpretation, based on a comprehensive knowledge of the sources, [To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause] will be the definitive work on the subject for a long time to come. . . . [The] book is peppered with fascinating and sometimes touching vignettes about leading figures in the dissident movement. . . . An absorbing case study in how a creative minority can challenge the thinking of an authoritarian state.""---Philip Boobbyer, Slavonic and East European Review ""Authoritative. . . . An essential addition to the cultural history of the late Soviet era."" * Kirkus, starred review * ""An expertly conveyed history of the Soviet dissident movement and the individuals involved. For readers interested in the history of censorship, human rights, international law, or the Soviet Union. It’s one not to miss."" * Library Journal, starred review * ""Comprehensive and analytical, Benjamin Nathans’s To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause vivifies the Soviet intellectuals at the complex heart of the human-rights-oriented dissidence movement in the USSR. . . . A meticulous history of a principled movement, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause addresses efforts to protect human rights within the context of the Soviet Union."" * Foreword Reviews * ""[A] rigorous, probing, and highly engaging study."" * Choice * ""Clear, scholarly and careful, averse to jargon, shrewd about testimony, subtle in his presentation of the various figures; he has interviewed many of the dissidents himself.""---Robert Blaisdell, Russian Life ""Monumental. . . . A remarkable history of protest in Russia."" * New Indian Express *