[lbo-talk] There. Is. No. God.

Chris Doss lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com
Sun Mar 5 06:48:03 PST 2006


I'm having a quasi-Lovecraftian moment of cosmic horror:

Blair Says Trotsky Book Inspired Him Sat Mar 4, 3:28 PM ET

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair, who wrenched his party from the left to the center of the political spectrum, said he had been inspired to enter politics by a book about socialist icon Leon Trotsky.

At a World Book Day event at London's Commonwealth Club earlier this week, Blair said Isaac Deutscher's biography of the Russian communist leader was the book that meant the most to him.

Deutscher's three-volume work — "The Prophet Armed," "The Prophet Unarmed" and "The Prophet Outcast" — paints a sympathetic portrait of Trotsky, who helped Vladimir Lenin lead the 1917 Russian revolution but was later driven out by Joseph Stalin. He was murdered by an agent of Stalin in Mexico in 1940.

"I might as well make a confession now," Blair said. "There were people who got me very involved in politics. But then there was also a book."

Blair said the work "made a very deep impression on me and gave me a love of political biography for the rest of my life."

"My association with books has continued through the rest of my adult life but particularly with my children," Blair added.

He said the book he read most often was "Flat Stanley," a children's story loved by his 5-year-old son, Leo.

"I know more about Flat Stanley than I ever really wanted to."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060304/ap_on_en_ot/people_blair

Nu, zayats, pogodi!

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