If you want to understand why Russians today have such a complicated relationship with the West, read War and Peace. Tens of thousands of their countrymen were slaughtered at Borodino, but that battle happened to anticipate Napoleon's fateful retreat from Moscow-a turn of events that would change the course of European history forever and that Tolstoy described as powerfully as any historian ever has.ģ. And because of War and Peace, most Russians have regarded the war of 1812 and the famous, bloody battle of Borodino as a unique Russian victory. He's so successful, in fact, that many Soviet soldiers who were given sections of War and Peace to read in their barracks during World War II claimed to have been more moved by Tolstoy's descriptions of the war than by the battle taking place before their very eyes. Tolstoy brings the past alive by taking you inside the forgotten little moments of everyday life that historians often overlook. If you like history, you'll love War and Peace, which depicts a transformative era in a way that continues to stir and enlighten readers. Over and over again the book shows how moments of crisis can either shut us down or open us up, helping us to tap into our deepest reservoirs of strength and creativity. The existential angst of Tolstoy and his characters is entirely familiar to those of us living at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and his novel has important things to say to us in this moment.

At its core War and Peace is a book about people trying to find their footing in a world being turned upside down by war, social and political change, and spiritual confusion.

War and peace book