Eight Pieces of Empire: A 20 Year Journey Through the Soviet Collapse by Lawrence Scott Sheets
Reviewed By: Jeremy Zentner, Adult Services Assistant
Genre: Nonfiction
Suggested Age: Teens and Adults
What is This Book About? Lawrence Sheets is a journalist who reports on the Soviet Union in the 1980s and the Russian Federation after the Cold War, compiling his most fascinating adventures in this book. Eight Pieces of Empire chronicles life amongst poverty-stricken communists, black market gangsters, a proud survivor of the Nazi invasion, secular insurgents turned religious fundamentalists, the inner workings of the Uzbek Stalinist state, the beginnings of the American war in Afghanistan, civil wars and foreign wars throughout the Caucus region, dwindling native ethnicities in Siberia, the excavation of the Romanov dynasty, and communities still living in the radioactive haze of Chernobyl.
My Review: This is an amazing historical and contemporary chronology of war and strife in the former Soviet Union. I have always been fascinated by soviet and Russian history, and Eight Pieces of Empire does not disappoint. Lawrence Sheets does a phenomenal job in bringing testament to some of the most historic events in modern Russia, as well as the former soviet republics. The reader will learn things that never received much media attention, while also getting a first-hand look at some of the subtle intricacies of what life was like in the former USSR. What I also like about this book is that Lawrence Sheets depicts how the United States’ war in Afghanistan is intertwined with the previous Soviet invasion that occurred in the 1980s. This is by far one of the most interesting reads on contemporary Russia and Central Asia.
Three Words that Describe this Book: Informative, Gritty, Historic
Give This A Try if You Like… Bloodlands, Imperial Cruise, A History of Russia, Into the Wild, Under the Banner of Heaven
Rating: 5/5
