Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful and thoughtful autobiography..
Review: ..and it even has a little good humor thrown in. Most satisfying for me, as a political science Ph.D., were his attacks on the lefty Sovietologists who downplayed the sheer evil of the Soviet regime for so long. I only wish Dr. Pipes mentioned more of their names so they can be more thoroughly discredited. But they know who they are. The other particularly interesting section was on his service in the Reagan administration during the height of the nuclear freeze/peace movement in the U.S. and Europe. Hmmm...a tough, principled President, domestic know-nothings, peacenik Europeans, undependable allies, rampant anti-Americanism...how little has changed! But of course we were right then, and we're right now. One point Pipes discusses repeatedly is the tendency of those in academia and government toward shirking away from confronting enemies and viewing the world as they wish it to be instead of as it really is. The book also works as a great life story as well as an intellectual autobiography. Dr. Pipes truly lead an interesting life, one inspiring to many others. I'm particularly inspired by his unending and seemingly boundless curiosity. My only complaint is that he might have added a little more about his family life, particularly about his wife and sons. I'm a little puzzled by the review of academician Ravitch below. First, it should be made clear that Dr. Pipes' "disillusionment" with service in the Reagan Administration did not stem from its aims but from bureaucratic politics and personality clashes, such as with Alexander Haig and Richard Allen. He wholeheartedly supported Reagan's desire to move beyond detente and adopt a tougher line toward the Soviets. Second, with regard to the Holocaust, Pipes states quite clearly in the book that while it had a great role in shaping his personality, thinking and religious beliefs, he refrains from writing more on it simply because so many others have done so, and there is not much he can add. Gee, humility from a Harvard professor! Pipes is indeed a wise man. Finally, I see no reason for attacking Dr. Pipes and/or his son Daniel as "uptight," "fanatics," or "crazy." These are personal attacks completely outside the scope of the book. How regrettable.
Rating:
Summary: Vivet
Review: A wonderfully engaging autobiography of a man who, as a teenager. was present when the Germans entered Warsaw in 1939, and who, as an adult, was a close adviser of President Reagan and one of the very few people to understand the Soviet Union. A story told with wit and panache. The best autobiography to come out of Harvard since that of J.K. Galbraith. It will live.
Rating:
Summary: I haven't read this book
Review: But the book review translated the title incorrectly. It means "I lived," not "I have lived." "I have lived" in Latin is vixeram.
Rating:
Summary: I haven't read this book
Review: But the book review translated the title incorrectly. It means "I lived," not "I have lived." "I have lived" in Latin is vixeram.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books of the Year
Review: It might seem unlikely that the autobiography of a professor of Russian History should be of interest to the general reader. However, Professor Pipes has written a book that deserves to be read by a wide audience. In fact, I would especially recommend it to intelligent high school and college readers.
Pipes recounts three main stages of his life: His youth in and flight from prewar Poland; his education and building of a career in America; and his two-year service on President Reagan's National Security Council. The first section is like other Holocaust escape memoirs in having some excitement and danger, but the difference here is that Pipes minimizes these elements. Traveling through Germany and Italy on a phony passport, he is determined to visit art museums, seemingly placing his intellectual passion ahead of safety. Indeed, Professor Pipes's intellectual intensity is the main theme of this book. After his arrival in America his intellectual passion takes him from a backwater college to a professorship at Harvard. Pipes is frank about the careerism involved in academia, and scathing about the abuses to which scholarship is put. One example that stands out is his mentioning a well-known professor of Soviet political science who absurdly "found no significant difference between the way New Haven was administered and any city of similar size in the Soviet Union."
Pipes finds similar attitudes in government, where some of his superiors averted their eyes from unpleasant truths. I found that the most interesting aspect of his section on government service was his observations of his colleagues. For example, Pipes didn't hold then-Vice-President Bush in high regard, and perhaps the only instance of humor in this book is directed at Henry Kissinger.
Professor Pipes is very self-assured and in this book he makes a good case for his pride. Whether or not one agrees with Pipes's judgments, it is hard not to be inspired by his love of learning and breadth of intellectual interests. It is for this reason that I would especially recommend the book to motivated young readers.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books of the Year
Review: It might seem unlikely that the autobiography of a professor of Russian History should be of interest to the general reader. However, Professor Pipes has written a book that deserves to be read by a wide audience. In fact, I would especially recommend it to intelligent high school and college readers.
Pipes recounts three main stages of his life: His youth in and flight from prewar Poland; his education and building of a career in America; and his two-year service on President Reagan's National Security Council. The first section is like other Holocaust escape memoirs in having some excitement and danger, but the difference here is that Pipes minimizes these elements. Traveling through Germany and Italy on a phony passport, he is determined to visit art museums, seemingly placing his intellectual passion ahead of safety. Indeed, Professor Pipes's intellectual intensity is the main theme of this book. After his arrival in America his intellectual passion takes him from a backwater college to a professorship at Harvard. Pipes is frank about the careerism involved in academia, and scathing about the abuses to which scholarship is put. One example that stands out is his mentioning a well-known professor of Soviet political science who absurdly "found no significant difference between the way New Haven was administered and any city of similar size in the Soviet Union."
Pipes finds similar attitudes in government, where some of his superiors averted their eyes from unpleasant truths. I found that the most interesting aspect of his section on government service was his observations of his colleagues. For example, Pipes didn't hold then-Vice-President Bush in high regard, and perhaps the only instance of humor in this book is directed at Henry Kissinger.
Professor Pipes is very self-assured and in this book he makes a good case for his pride. Whether or not one agrees with Pipes's judgments, it is hard not to be inspired by his love of learning and breadth of intellectual interests. It is for this reason that I would especially recommend the book to motivated young readers.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Life of a Brilliant Scholar
Review: Pipes is the greatest living student of imperial Russia and the revolution. His influence on a generation of scholars and commentators is only matched by Conquest's. Anyone interested in policymaking relative to the Soviet Union will enjoy this book, as will people interested in the evolution of a distinguished intellectual. How many people could invite Isiah Berlin, Bunny Wilson and George Kennan to dinner and expect them all to accept? The reviewer jillenium is mistaken in his/her Latin translation. Vixi means "I lived" or "I have lived"; vixeram is the pluperfect tense and means "I had lived." Give the Yale University Press some credit!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Life of a Brilliant Scholar
Review: Pipes is the greatest living student of imperial Russia and the revolution. His influence on a generation of scholars and commentators is only matched by Conquest's. Anyone interested in policymaking relative to the Soviet Union will enjoy this book, as will people interested in the evolution of a distinguished intellectual. How many people could invite Isiah Berlin, Bunny Wilson and George Kennan to dinner and expect them all to accept? The reviewer jillenium is mistaken in his/her Latin translation. Vixi means "I lived" or "I have lived"; vixeram is the pluperfect tense and means "I had lived." Give the Yale University Press some credit!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book by a Great Man. Read in 3 days.
Review: Richard Pipes is a great man, a great writer and a great thinker. He warned us about the dangers of the USSR and communism. He debunked left wing illusions. He was proven right following the USSR's collapse. He is an academic who has played an important role in our public affairs. His life story and his experiences provide valuable lessons and teach us much about the world. May he live another 20 years.
Richard Pipes is the father of Daniel Pipes, the great Middle East Scholar. The only part that was missing was any detailed discussion of his sons and especially Daniel Pipes and the threat of militant/terror Islamism. Read all their books.
Rating: 
Summary: Vixi! You call that living?
Review: Sharing with Pipes the status of a retired professor of History I can attest to the accuracy of his comments about the Academic Life. He has shown with brevity the congenital disabilities of academics, plagued as they are with insecurity and ambition. He has also shown well the foolishness of leftist historians of Communism and the Soviet Union. His experience as a Reagan official in the foreign policy field was disillusioning, as one might have expected. But I bring away two additional reactions. One is that Pipes, for all his erudition and ability, is hardly a mentor, an inspiration for students. I have myself found few if any great scholars to be particularly inspiring as anything but narrow role models and Pipes certainly is in line with this. Secondly, Pipes is far too reticent to discuss the Holocaust which almost took his life. He does reflect on the special pervisity of the Polish people who would rather forget that for half a millenium large numbers of Jews shared their lives, but he is far too reluctant to say much more about this. He also claims that while the Holocaust made his own father doubt divine providence, his own reaction was in the opposite direction. Anyone whose faith is strengthened by Auschwitz needs to do some explaining. Pipes would rather bury himself in Russian history than reveal himself to his audience. This is his way of self-preservation.
Another uptight academic pretending to be something he cannot be -- a wise man. Pipes has been accused of a "Polish" bias in his view of Russia as essentially Asiatic and barbaric. With his rather justified contempt for Poland and its unfulfilled promise he does not deserve to be considered pro-Polish. The Poles like to think they are superior to the Russians, but they are not. Pipes is a Zionist above all. One hopes he is not as crazy a Zionist as his son, Daniel Pipes, the leading Likudnik fanatic among American academics.
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