Special Interview: Sean McMeekin

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And now for something completely different. I have something very different and very exciting today, which I hope you will enjoy. Dr. Sean McMeekin is a name that readers may recognize from his regular appearance in my recommended reading segments at the ends of our regular history pieces. Dr McMeekin is a prolific author of what I like to call “muscular history”, particular the wars and revolutions of the early 20th Century. A Professor of European History and Culture at Bard College, Dr. McMeekin is the author, among other works, of The Russian Origins of the First World War, July 1914: Countdown to War, Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East, The Russian Revolution: A New History, Stalin’s War, and To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism. Some historians are fine scholars but rather dry writers, and some people are good writers and shoddy scholars, but I have always enjoyed the McMeekin corpus because it is muscular, interesting history which is actually enjoyable to read, with clear and direct prose. In any case, a few weeks ago I reached out to Dr. McMeekin inquiring if he would be willing to have a conversation with me about his books, his approach to writing, and more generally about the World Wars. To my delight, he not only obliged but gave lengthy answers, which I hope you will enjoy as much as I did. Subscribe nowBig Serge: “One of the first things that stands out about your work is that you have found success writing about topics which are very familiar to people and have a large extant corpus of writin…