“How often does an historian summon the courage to substantially revise his own work? In Scorched Earth, Jörg Baberowski again shows himself to be an elegant stylist and provocative thinker focused on the conundrum of mass violence. He argues that Stalin lusted for power, eagerly unleashed mass violence, indeed spoke through violence; that a state of emergency is a paradise ... Read morefor sadists and psychopaths; that the experience of violence fundamentally changes people; and that murder can induce exuberance. Chilling.”
Stephen Kotkin, author of Stalin  
Stephen Kotkin "Jörg Baberowski’s Scorched Earth skillfully guides the reader through the nightmarish reality of Stalin’s brutal rule of the Soviet Union. The smartly crafted narrative is full of interesting, important, and horrifying details that illustrate the diverse character of the killing. Baberowski tells a veracious story of fear and terror among Soviet citizens that is hard to forget."
Norman M. Naimark, author of Stalin’s Genocides
Norman Naimark “Baberowski . . . analyzes the Stalinist system in what is arguably the most comprehensive and perceptive volume of its kind in the West.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
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