Christopher Lazarski - Böcker

The term "White movement" is commonly associated with the military struggle against the Soviet regime pursued by various anti-Bolshevik armies. Such a perception of the movement neglects the considerable effort undertaken by Russian political elites to organize political opposition to Bolshevik power. Acting through several multiparty organizations, these elites repeatedly attempted to form a common anti-Bolshevik front, to restore an all-Russian government and to liberate Russia from the Bolsheviks. In The Lost Opportunity, Lazarski explores these facets of the anti-Bolshevik struggle, which have been almost entirely ignored by historical scholarship. If we consider that the men and women who composed those elites were the most active and dynamic group in Russian civil society that neglect is striking. Their main task—the restoration of an all-Russian government—was of utmost importance for the anti-Bolsheviks, whose main centers were located on the peripheries of the Russian Empire and often had contradictory goals. Due to the paucity of interest in the activity of White political elites, this book is a pioneering study.

The term "White movement" is commonly associated with the military struggle against the Soviet regime pursued by various anti-Bolshevik armies. Such a perception of the movement neglects the considerable effort undertaken by Russian political elites to organize political opposition to Bolshevik power. Acting through several multiparty organizations, these elites repeatedly attempted to form a common anti-Bolshevik front, to restore an all-Russian government and to liberate Russia from the Bolsheviks. In The Lost Opportunity, Lazarski explores these facets of the anti-Bolshevik struggle, which have been almost entirely ignored by historical scholarship. If we consider that the men and women who composed those elites were the most active and dynamic group in Russian civil society that neglect is striking. Their main task—the restoration of an all-Russian government—was of utmost importance for the anti-Bolsheviks, whose main centers were located on the peripheries of the Russian Empire and often had contradictory goals. Due to the paucity of interest in the activity of White political elites, this book is a pioneering study.

Lord Acton (1834–1902) is often called a historian of liberty. A great historian and political thinker, he had a rare talent to reach beneath the surface and reveal the hidden springs that move the world. While endeavoring to understand the components of a truly free society, Acton attempted to see how the principles of self-determination and freedom worked in practice, from antiquity to his own time. But though he penned hundreds of papers, essays, reviews, letters and ephemera, the ultimate book of his findings and views on the history of liberty remained unwritten. Reading a book a day for years he still could not keep pace with the output of his time, and finally, dejected, he gave up. Today, Acton is mainly known for a single maxim, power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.In Power Tends to Corrupt, Christopher Lazarski presents the first in-depth consideration of Acton's thought in more than fifty years. Lazarski brings Acton's work to light in accessible language, with a focus on his understanding of liberty and its development in Western history. A work akin to Acton's overall account of the history of liberty, with a secondary look at his political theory, this book is an outstanding exegesis of the theories and findings of one of the nineteenth century's keenest minds.