Top three recommendations for history students

We asked our History lecturers to recommend a textbook, novel and film that students should try before joining the course ARU. Here are Dr Jon Davis's picks.

History text

Stephen F. Cohen’s The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag After Stalin (2011) is a highly readable and detailed account of what happened when Stalin’s labour camps opened after the dictator’s death in 1953. The stories are a reminder of the horrors of Stalinism, but the book overall highlights the changes that emerged within the Soviet system after Stalin’s death.

Novel

Neil Gaiman’s excellent Norse Mythology (2017). Not a novel but a collection of stories that contributed to the Vikings’ culture and understanding of themselves and their world. Read this to find out the truth about Thor!

Film

Bridge of Spies, directed by Steven Spielberg (2015). A wonderful portrayal of Cold War relations during the famous prisoner swaps between the USSR and USA on Glienicke Bridge. The film stretches the historical truth on occasion, but it captures the mood and suspicion of the Cold War perfectly.

These selections are by Dr Jonathan Davis, Director of the Labour History Research Unit and a specialist in 20th-century Russian history.