The Young Trotsky

by Max Eastman

Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Max Forrester Eastman was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet, and a prominent political activist. For many years, Eastman was a supporter of socialism, a leading patron of the Harlem Renaissance and an activist for a number of liberal and radical causes. In later life, however, his views turned sharply, and he became an advocate of free market economics and an anti-Communist.

A prolific writer, Eastman published more than twenty books on subjects as diverse as the scientific method, humor, Freudian psychology and Soviet culture. He composed five volumes of poetry, a novel and translated into English some of the work of Alexander Pushkin. For the Modern Library, he edited and abridged Marx' Das Kapital.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this relatively short book, Eastman vividly captures Trotsky's development as a young revolutionary. The book covers his childhood and schooling, early years as an organiser and writer in Nikolaev, his first period of imprisonment and exile to Siberia, and his first meetings with Lenin and other member of the Iskra journal. It concludes with the 1903 conference and an analysis of Trotsky's attitude to the split between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.