Ghodsee turns Thompson's life and the equally heroic story of three Bulgarian brothers and their 14-year-old sister, who were also part of the resistance, into a gentle, reflective exploration of the idealism that drove them, despite the barbarity that many communists had already glimpsed in Stalin's Soviet Union. -- Robert Legvold * Foreign Affairs *
Wonderful.... History looks very different if you fought for national liberation and human progress under the banner of Communism.... To understand ... modern Bulgarians ..., you must enter their world of human self-sacrifice. -- Freeman Dyson * New York Times Book Review *
History meets ethnography, all delivered in an absorbing, novelistic style. -- Donny Gluckstein * Socialist Review *
The Left Side of History is a stimulating study and a delightful read. It should provoke other fearless ones to collaborate in solving the major mysteries of our time: what was communism really like, and why did it end in an array of countries, but not everywhere? -- Joan Roelofs * Counterpunch *
[Ghodsee's] skills as a seasoned ethnographer and part-time Bulgarian resident shine in her astute analysis of the cultural and social circumstances that account for what has become the convoluted and highly controversial history of communism. ... The Left Side of History is a remarkable account of Bulgaria's current history of triumph and despairs, wrapped in the aspirations, hopes, and tragic failures of humans. It is told with astute historical accuracy and striking intimacy concerning the personal stories of Bulgarian communist activists, as well as ordinary people whose lives were indelibly marked by the rise and demise of communism. -- Elza Ibroscheva * H-SAE, H-Net Reviews *
Kristen Ghodsee tells a tragic and beautiful story. She leaves aside broader political and diplomatic history and concentrates on personal stories. In this way she makes interesting contributions to the existing academic studies regarding the resistance movement in Bulgaria and the period of communist rule. -- Vasil Paraskevov * History *
[A] beautifully written and passionately argued narrative.... The book does not romanticize the Communist regime. Instead, it presents us with biographies of extraordinary individuals who sacrificed a great deal, including their own lives, for ideas that were transformed into policy and practice sometimes at odds with those ideas. It is a call to reengage with the memory and legacies of the Communist regime through a more nuanced framework that allows for both a critical and an appreciative analysis of its accomplishments.
-- Maria Bucur * Nationalities Papers *
The Left Side of History is ... not a typical academic book in so far as it is highly readable, and at times hard to put down.
-- Rachel Applebaum * Social History *
This book benefits from Ghodsee's creativity and raconteurism. It reads less like a traditional history book and more like a captivating piece of fiction. Ghodsee's seamless and engaging writing allows the reader to become so invested in each of the people she writes about to the extent that one is moved when any one of them experience misfortune or success. Moreover, this book is a credit to Ghodsee's career as a social and gender historian as it sheds an important light on the role of women in the communist Eastern Bloc.
-- Matthew Martin * Slovo *
