1. Since I told a rather gossipy story about the late Robert Conquest earlier, I want to make amends by talking about his scholarship.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
2. Of the major anti-communist historians of the USSR -- along with Pipes, Ulam, Wolfe, etc -- Conquest to me most valuable.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
3. What distinguished Conquest's work from the rather arcane field of Kremlinology was his empiricism.
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4. As against other historians who got bogged down in theories of totalitarianism or Russian character, Conquest focused on what happened.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
5. A lot of Conquests work was figuring out simple mechanics of Stalin's rule: how the purges or Ukrainian famine unfolded.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
6. Of course, as with all fact-based research Conquest got revised at margins, but basic narrative structures he created were sturdy.
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7. In many other instances I'm suspicious of this style of old-fashioned English empiricism but in a highly charged field it was a tonic.
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8. About Conquest's many extra-curricular activities I'll say: poetry & limericks enjoyable, literary criticism dubious, pranks obnoxious.
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9.
@henryfarrell likes science fiction anthologies Conquest & Amis edited. I found them eccentric in their conception of genre.2 replies 1 retweet 0 likes
10. In any case: Robert Conquest, 1917-2015, a man of parts.
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