I know you're only 50pg in but what's your impression so far?
I never read it either but I think I heard he was a Trotskyist.
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2025
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I'm now like 110 pages in (trying to power through as much as possible on a brief vacation) and really enjoying it. You get a sense of how a mix of both personal and political differences shaped the directions the struggle took, and how intermingled they were. And a lot of the questions and seemingly petty disputes they all grappled with still resonate.
Also because it's so long (though really it's 3 500ish page books) he really has time to patienntly fold in all the influences and doctrine already floating around and influencing the course of Trotsky's thought.
I don't know much about Deutscher really but so far the portrait seems pretty balanced - he obviously admires Trotsky doesn't seem interested in airbrushing away anyone's flaws. He also disputes or on occasion contradicts Trotsky's memoir.
IIRC he thought "Trotskyist" and "Stalinist" either were or eventually devolved into meaningless terms due to their vagueness and loaded nature, but obv I'm not there yet.