He was a writer and actor, known for Clancy of the Mounted (1933), The Trail of '98 (1928) and The Roughneck (1924). Robert William Service was born in Lancashire, England on January 16, 1874 to a Scottish bank clerk and the daughter of an English factory owner. Quotes. Robert John Service FBA (born 29 October 1947) is a British historian, academic, and author who has written extensively on the history of the Soviet Union, particularly the era from the October Revolution to Stalin's death. In his new biography of the Soviet dictator, Robert Service has given the most convincing description yet of how Stalin's insecure Georgian childhood fashioned his psychology. I knew very little about him before reading this book. The British publisher is Macmillan. 1874–1958. Fourteen historians and sociologists signed a letter to the publishing house. Now I … Quotes Biography Comments Videos Following Followers Statistics. Robert Service completes his masterful trilogy on the founding figures of the Soviet Union in an eagerly anticipated, authoritative biography of Leon Trotsky. His father, also Robert Service, was a banker from Kilwinning, Scotland, who had been transferred to England. Trotsky: A Biography by Professor Robert Service, has been brought out with considerable fanfare. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-W-Service, Electric Scotland - Boigraphy of Robert W Service, A Celebration of Women Writers - Robert W. Service, Academy of American Poets - Biography of Robert W. Service, Robert William Service - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Robert W. Service was the English-born poet who made his fame writing about the frontier life of western Canada in poems such as "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee." Biography. His reward for this is to be regularly attacked by Communists and their allies, and those attacks reached a fever pitch upon the publication of Trotsky in 2009. Service was born in Preston, Lancashire, England, the third of ten children. Famous Canadian poet is one of the most widely read poets of the 20 century in English. The letter cited 'a host of factual errors,' the 'repugnant connotations' of the passages in which Service deals with Trotsky's Jewish origins, implicitly accusing him of anti-Semitism, and Service's recourse to 'formulas associated with Stalinist propaganda' for the purpose of discrediting Trotsky. Briefly served in the United States Army during World War II, with service number 39 744 068, from April 12 - October 11, 1945, after he was drafted. Robert W. Service. The author, Robert Service, does a fine job of giving the reader a firm grasp of the life of Trotsky and Service achieves this without bias and without overloading the reader with unnecessary detail. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. He died on September 11, 1958 in Lancieux, Côtes-d'Armor, France. Drawing on the wealth of unexplored material available for the first time since the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Robert Service's biography of Stalin promises to be the most authoritative yet published. He is best known for his biographies of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky. [4][3] Suhrkamp announced in February 2012 that it would publish a German translation of Robert Service's Trotsky in July 2012. After spending his childhood in Scotland he came to Canada in 1894, working for the Canadian Bank of Commerce in the Yukon for eight years. Robert Service grew up in Scotland and tried a career in … • The Bolshevik Party in Revolution 1917–23: A Study in Organizational Change (1979) This biography stresses the importance of his supportive family and of its ethnic and cultural background. Corrections? His biography of Trotsky was strongly criticised by Service's Hoover Institution colleague Bertrand Mark Patenaude in a review for the American Historical Review. Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images. He was married to Bourgoin, Germain. $29.95 (715p) ISBN 978-0-674-01697-2 This biography is very informative and detailed. Robert Service Biography Childhood. The Trail of ’98 (1910) is a vivid novel of men and conditions in the Klondike. He published a trilogy of biographies on the three most important Bolshevik leaders: Lenin (2000), Stalin (2004) and Trotsky (2009). Trotsky is perhaps the most intriguing and, given his prominence, the most understudied of the Soviet revolutionaries. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. He then moved to Western Canada and subsequently north to the Yukon Territory. Overthrowing the conventional image of Stalin as an uneducated political administrator inexplicably transformed into a pathological killer, Robert Service reveals a more complex and fascinating story behind this notorious twentieth-century figure. He also wrote two autobiographical works, Ploughman of the Moon (1945) and Harper of Heaven (1948). Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The talent of this man is so bright that he is still called as Canadian Kipling and even compared to Jack London and Robert Burns. Robert W. Service, in full Robert William Service, (born January 16, 1874, Preston, Lancashire, England—died September 11, 1958, Lancieux, France), popular verse writer called “the Canadian Kipling” for rollicking ballads of the “frozen North,” notably “The Shooting of Dan McGrew.”. Overview Poem Activity. Between 1986 and 1995, Service published a three-volume biography of Vladimir Lenin. Robert W. Service is best known as a Poet. British historian Robert Service is not one of those, though. Robert W. Service was born on January 16, 1874 in England. Robert Service's Lenin is a political colossus but also a believable human being. He was raised by his aunts in a small town in Ayrshire. Updates? Robert Service makes a lot of interesting highlighted points in this book. Robert William Service, one of the most proficient poets and writers, is till date remembered for contributing some of the most celebrated works in literature. [1], Media related to Robert Service at Wikimedia Commons, This article is about the British historian. Making use of recently opened archives, he has been able to piece together the private as well as the public life, giving the first complete picture of Lenin. At the age of five, Service went to Scotland to live with his grandfather and three young aunts, who showered him with attention. He is currently a professor of Russian history at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford, and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Service is best known for his poems "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee", from his first book, Songs of a Sourdough (1907; … Robert William Service, the renowned poet of the Yukon, was born in Lancashire, England, on January 16, 1874. The son of a bank cashier, Service was the eldest of four siblings. He has made a career of dispassionately analyzing Communists and Communism, including writing biographies of Lenin and Stalin. He has been a fellow of the British Academy since 1998.[1]. He has written several books, including the highly acclaimed Lenin: A Biography, Russia: Experiment with a People, Stalin: A Biography and Comrades: A History of World Communism, as well as many other books on Russia's past and present.Trotsky: A Biography was awarded the 2009 Duff Cooper Prize. He grew up with nine siblings in Lancashire, England and Glasgow, Scotland. He was married to Germaine Bourgoin, and he was the father of a daughter named Iris. Robert John Service (lahir di Britania Raya, 29 Oktober 1947; umur 73 tahun) adalah seorang sejarawan, akademisi, dan pengarang Inggris yang menulis tentang sejarah Uni Soviet, terutama era dari Revolusi Oktober sampai kematian Stalin. From 1912 he lived in Europe, mainly on the French Riviera. Born in Lancashire, England to a bank cashier and an heiress, poet Robert William Service moved to Scotland at the age of five, living with his grandfather and three aunts until his parents moved to … Biography of Robert Service Robert William Service (January 16, 1874 – September 11, 1958) was a British-Canadian poet and writer who has often been called "the Bard of the Yukon". After reading this biography by Robert Service, I would read anything he wrote. Trotsky is perhaps the most intriguing and, given his prominence, the most understudied of … He moved to Canada in his early twenties. Robert Service has written a calmly authoritative biography on this seemingly unknowable figure. Biography of Robert William Service a poet and writer who has often been called "the Bard of the Yukon". The book was criticised by the German historian of communism Hermann Weber, who led a campaign to prevent Suhrkamp Verlag from publishing it in Germany. At key points in the book, we are reminded of Stalin's duality—on the one hand he was a proud Caucasian toughie who organized bank robberies and could drink spirits all night. Omissions? The chapters are similarly sized, each offering a detailed chunk of Trotsky's life , without being bogged down with minutia, yet still offering more than enough information to satisfy the reader. Robert Service completes his masterful trilogy on the founding figures of the Soviet Union in an eagerly anticipated, authoritative biography of Leon Trotsky.Trotsky is perhaps the most intriguing and, given his prominence, the most understudied of the Soviet revolutionaries. For the British-Canadian poet, see, Service speaking at the Tallinn Literature Festival HeadRead in May 2011, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, "European historians oppose publication by Suhrkamp of Robert Service's Trotsky biography", “Robert Service has written a diatribe, not a scientific polemic!”, "The Penguin History of Modern Russia – Robert Service – Penguin Books", "Review of Robert Service's Stalin: A Biography–Part One", "Review: A 'dis-Service' to Leon Trotsky", A book that fails to meet the basic standards of historical scholarship, The American Historical Review discredits Robert Service’s biography of Leon Trotsky, Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, Gilla Isa Mor mac Donnchadh MacFhirbhisigh, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Service_(historian)&oldid=997280027, Academics of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Biographies of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Leon Trotsky, This page was last edited on 30 December 2020, at 20:18. He was until 2013 a professor of Russian history at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford, and a senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. At key points in the book, we are reminded of Stalin’s duality—on the one hand he was a proud Caucasian toughie who organized bank robberies and could drink spirits all night. Robert W. Service. Among his later volumes of verse are Rhymes of a Red Cross Man (1916) and Bar Room Ballads (1940). Evidence about Stalin has always been opaque. Stalin himself orchestrated this, silencing his witnesses and systematically distorting, hiding and destroying documents. Robert Service is a Fellow of the British Academy and of St Antony's College, Oxford. “ In his new biography of the Soviet dictator, Robert Service has given the most convincing description yet of how Stalin’s insecure Georgian childhood fashioned his psychology. To news, offers, and he was married to Germaine Bourgoin and. 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