The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky is a biography of Leon Trotsky by Joshua Rubenstein. The book was originally published in 2009 by Yale University Press and is part of the Yale Jewish Lives series.
Synopsis and structure Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary’s Life by Joshua Rubenstein is a concise biography that explores Trotsky's role as a revolutionary, his Jewish background, and his political downfall. Part of Yale University Press's Jewish Lives series, the book presents Trotsky as a complex figure—both a key architect of the Russian Revolution and a victim of the regime he helped establish.
While the biography highlights Trotsky's intellectual and organizational contributions, it also underscores his ideological rigidity and political miscalculations. Rubenstein examines Trotsky's ambivalent relationship with his Jewish identity, noting moments of empathy toward Jewish suffering despite his self-identification as a Marxist internationalist. Reviewers praised the book's clarity and accessibility.
Reception
Release information Hardcover: 2011 (First Edition), Yale University Press, 240pp. . Paperback: 2013, Yale University Press, 240pp. . Kindle: 2011, Yale University Press.
Similar or related works Trotsky: A Biography by Robert Service (2009). Trotsky by Tony Cliff (1989–1993, 4 vols.). The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky (1953, 1959, 1963, 3 vols.) by Isaac Deutscher.
About the author
Joshua Rubenstein is an American activist, writer and scholar of literature, dissent, and politics in the former Soviet Union. He won a National Jewish Book Award in Eastern European studies in 2002 for his book Stalin’s Secret Pogrom.
See also Russian Revolution Marxist historiography Trotskyism
Leon Trotsky bibliography
References Notes
Citations
External links Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary's Life at JSTOR Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary's Life at Yale University Press