Socialist Party reply #1 to Robert Service on Trotsky

[TerrySleeper]

The American Historical Review's verdict of the book was damning:

"A book that fails to meet the basic standards of historical scholarship."

"Service fails to examine in a serious way Trotsky's political ideas in his writings and speeches - nor does it appear that he has always bothered to familiarize himself with them."

"Service relies on cheap shots and slanderous asides to keep his readers convinced that Trotsky is a despicable man."

'Nuff said?

[TerrySleeper]

Just fiished reading Trotsky's autobiography.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this as a good read - certainly better than the Service book.

No contest.

[TerrySleeper]

I'm halfway through reading Trotsky's autobiography, My Life.

The man revealed in that book is unrecognisable in Service's paltry effort.

How did Service ever get the damn thing published? It's beyond me . . . . .

[Mrydberg87]

@TerrySleeper

I think that it is a bit naive to take someones own autobiography as fact. I mean should we also believe that the picture George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld paint of themselves in their autobiographies is accurate?

I like to hear both sides and appreciate Peter Taaffe views as well, but just because you don't like what Robert Service says in his book doesn't make it untrue. His books on Stalin and Lenin are written with the same objectivity as his book on Trotsky

[TheSocialistParty]

@Mrydberg87 But isn't it even more naive to consider Robert Service's account "objective"?

The man has to make money from his work - it's his living.

Why should he worship objectivity if he thinks that Marxism in its Leninist and Trotskyist form is a threat to his way of life and that of his class?

And especially when there is a long tradition of these kind of attacks which get praised for a while in the media, because they say what the media want to hear?

[TheSocialistParty]

@Mrydberg87 In general it would be naive to take someone at their word, but in the case of Trotsky, given that he lived at a time when the most grotesque slanders were being thrown at him by stalin and the communist parties around the world, any inaccuracies in his works would be thrown against him.

The workers movement must, in any case, tell the truth because the bosses' media attacks the workers movement at every opportunity, so truth is vital.

[TheSocialistParty]

@Mrydberg87 Not aware that anyone has shown Trotsky's autobiography to be unreliable. Whereas i certainly couldn't vouch for Bush or Rumsfeld. It would probably be quite easy to show where they have told half truths and so forth in their biographies. One reviewer says: Noted war criminal Donald Rumsfeld has published his long-awaited autobiography in which he dodges -- with the docile, lithe flexibility of a teenager or career liar -- any and all responsibility for his actions in government.

[TerrySleeper]

@Mrydberg87 - no, I do not accept without reservation what LT said about himself in his autobiography, just because he wrote it! He admitted making errors and mistakes - I don't think that Bush and Rumsfeld ever did.

If you doubt that Service's book is rubbish, just check what the American Historical Review said about the book. The right-wing press may have loved the book; American academics know that it is trash and said so openly.

Naive? Moi?

[Drac39]

Service's Stalin biography which I have read is more than generous in it's assessment to the greatest butcher in human history, and it now appears that he does this at the exprense of Trotsky, the true Revolutionary advocate for the working class.

[richestquintuple2010]

The Evening Standard reported that Service declared: “There’s life in the old boy Trotsky yet—but if the ice pick didn’t quite do its job killing him off, I hope I’ve managed it” when he launched his biography of Leon Trotsky at Daunt Books, Holland Park, London, October 22 2010.

It's simply an attempted political assasination. Trotsky has survived all of those, and even after the physical assassination, they still go for him. Truth will out

[Drac39]

@richestquintuple2010 Link? I'd love to see this.

[TheSocialistParty]

@Drac39 Youtube doesn't allow you to post lnks it seems. google the quote and you will find several results including one from the evening standard itself, the page is still lave as of today. It is the evening standadrd dated 23 October 2009 9:54 AM

[Drac39]

@TheSocialistParty Thanks, it is shocking to think that a Historian would say such a thing. The quote is 100% true, it's disgusting. To be a good Historian you don't engage in personal opinion or right or wrong or good or evil. Service clearly has a distaste for Trotsky and can't be taken seriously. I'm not a Trotskyist but I very much admire the man and it is really a disappointment to read this. And worse yet he accuses Trotskyists of violence at the end of the article.

[TerrySleeper]

I am reading the book at the moment - it's a quirky mix of inaccuracies (basic factual ones, not ones of interpretation), cheap, personal side-swipes at Trotsky, and pretty dull, pedestrian prose (unlike the prose-style of the subject!).

The book adds nothing to our understanding of Leon Trotsky - I really cannot understand why Service wrote it - other than for the royalties(?!)

I am not a member of the Socialist Party, but Taaffe is basically on the right track with his crticisms.

[benthejrporter]

I've now watched Mr Taaffe's critique of the Hitchens-Service debate on Trotsky before watching the actual debate so I'd better watch that next. I've never heard of Robert Service, but I enjoy all Christopher Hitchens' debates.

[amhemsley]

Great to see Service's hollow attempt at character assassination exposed for the dishonest piece of slander it is.

[tellyontellyon]

true!

[Edella]

A link to the video you are referencing would be appreciated. Thanks!

[vorfahrenbach]

Very Good!