Robert Conquest (1917-2015)

|Peter Boettke|

The great historian Robert Conquest passed away on 3rd of August 2015 at the age of 98.  Conquest exposed the brutal reality of the Soviet socialist experiment, and in so doing played a major role in ultimately changing the course of human history.  In works such as Kolyma, The Harvest of Sorrows, The Great Terror, as well as books on Lenin and Stalin he made the socialist ideal confront the reality of socialist practice in such a blunt way that only ideological delusion and the lust for pure political power could sustain the socialist experiment.  That the 'dream' persisted until the late 1980s is testament to how blind those can be who take comfort in the ideology of socialism.

Conquest wrote bravely about a grim reality, but also with a gifted pen.  Please honor him by reading one of his books over the next few weeks.  

Here is a gala dinner in his honor from 1992 sponsored by the Independent Institute.

 

Comments

[steve mariotti]

I was not aware of Professor Conquest's work until reading Peter's post. I will read at least one of his books this week. steve mariotti

[Barkley Rosser]

One of the more curious coincidences around is that probably his most famous and influential book, The Great Terror, first appeared in 1968 just as Soviet troops entered Czechoslovakia to crush the reformist "Prague Spring."