David L. Hoffmann is Distinguished Professor of History at the Ohio State University. He has authored three books on Stalinism, Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow, 1929–1941 (1994), Stalinist Values: The Cultural Norms of Soviet Modernity, 1917–1941 (2003), and Cultivating the Masses: Modern State Practices and Soviet Socialism, 1914–1939 (2011), and edited two further books, Russian Modernity: Politics, Knowledge, Practices (2000) and Stalinism: The Essential Readings (2002). He has held fellowships from Harvard University, Cornell University, Stanford University, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the International Research and Exchanges Board, the Mellon Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council.

• Introduction; 1. Prelude to Stalinism; 2. Building socialism (1928–33); 3. Socialism attained (1934–38); 4. The Second World War (1939–45); 5. The postwar years (1946–53); Conclusion.

'Stressing red Russia's need to modernize, state practices of social intervention, and the ideological worldview of Soviet leaders, David L. Hoffmann draws on a career of writing on the Stalin era - and the international context that shaped it - to produce this compelling up-to-date synthesis that will appeal to students and lay readers alike.' Donald Raleigh, University of North Carolina