Moscow in the 1960s was the other side of the Iron Curtain: mysterious, exotic, even dangerous. In 1966 the historian Sheila Fitzpatrick traveled to Moscow to research in the Soviet archives. This was the era of Brezhnev, of a possible thaw in the Cold War, when the Soviets couldn t decide either to thaw out properly or re-freeze. Moscow, the world capital of socialism, was renowned for its drabness. The buses were overcrowded; there were endemic shortages and endless queues. This was also the age of regular spying scandals and tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions, and it was no surprise that...

While Brian Fitzpatrick has today fallen into relative obscurity, efforts persist in discrediting Manning Clark's name. Against the Grain examines the dual careers of Fitzpatrick and Clark as activists and historians during the Cold War, and shows the political and personal difficulties that beset both men throughout their careers.
Contributors Stuart Macintyre, James Waghorne, Ann Curthoys, Mark McKenna, Roger Douglas, Sheila Fitzpatrick, Mark Finnane, John Myrtle, Carolyn Rasmussen, Jill Roe and others critically observe the men's legacy and the value of their work to future...