Russia and the USSR in the Twentieth Century (High School/Retail Version) - Softcover

Dr. David MacKenzie, Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, received his B.A. degree in history at the University of Rochester in 1951, after service in the U.S. Army in Germany. Graduating from the Russian Institute of Columbia University in 1953, he began teaching history and Russian language at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and received his Ph.D. degree from Columbia in 1962. He taught Russian and European history at Princeton University (1959-1961), Wells College (1961-1968), then as a full professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro starting in 1969, retiring in July 2000. For his scholarly research, MacKenzie received grants from the Ford Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, and the International Research and Exchanges Board. In 1988 he was elected to the Serbian Academy of Sciences for his writings on Serbian history. Married to Patricia Williams in 1953, he has three grown sons. MacKenzie's published works include THE SERBS AND RUSSIAN PAN-SLAVISM 1875-1878 (1967); THE LION OF TASHKENT: THE CAREER OF GENERAL M. G. CHERNIAEV (1974); ILIJA GARASANIN: BALKAN BISMARCK (1985); APIS: THE CONGENIAL CONSPIRATOR (1989); two volumes on tsarist and Soviet foreign policy (1993, 1994); THE "BLACK HAND" ON TRIAL: SALONIKA 1917 (1995); THE EXONERATION OF THE "BLACK HAND" (1998); SERBS AND RUSSIANS (1996); and VIOLENT SOLUTIONS: REVOLUTIONS, NATIONALISM AND SECRET SOCIETIES IN EUROPE TO 1918 (1996). He has contributed some 35 articles to the MODERN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN AND SOVIET HISTORY. Mostly for research, MacKenzie visited Serbia 16 times and Russia 7 times, and is fluent in Russian, Serbian, German, and French. He lives in retirement with his wife, Patricia, in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Michael W. Curran is a former Ohio State University Dean (Humanities College and University College) and is an emeritus faculty member in the Department of History, where he taught courses on the history of Russia and Eastern Europe for 35 years. He also served as director of Ohio State's Center for Slavic and East European Studies. He studied at the Free University of Berlin, Germany; Helsinki University, Finland; and universities in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) and Moscow. He holds the Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has published articles and reviews on Russian history and is currently working on newly accessible materials from St. Petersburg and Moscow.

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"Strengths: ... for my purposes, the general narrative approach and ability of the authors to summarize complex developments concisely."

"In selecting a text I look for a balanced approach with political, economic, social and cultural history intertwined. I also look for attention to women, peasants, workers, and ’minority’ groups. This text does a better job than most with all of these."

"The historiographical debates at the end of some chapters presented as ’Problems’ are tremendously helpful in getting students not only to engage the history but the historiography as well."