by WOLFGANG WEBER
In a letter dated July 30, 2011, to Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz, who heads the major German publishing house Suhrkamp Verlag, 14 prominent historians, political scientists and publicists from Germany and Austria oppose the firm’s planned publication of Robert Service’s biography of Leon Trotsky. The World Socialist Web Site is today publishing this letter.
The authors and initial signers of the letter are Professor of Political Science and Contemporary History, Dr. Hermann Weber (Mannheim University) and Professor of Sociology, Dr. Helmut Dahmer (Technical University, Darmstadt).
They support the criticism of Service’s biography of Trotsky set forth by David North in the book In Defense of Leon Trotsky (published by Mehring Books, 2010). In June of this year, the American historian Bertrand Patenaude associated himself with North’s critique in a review of Service’s book for the prestigious American Historical Review (AHR). He agreed that the book by Service is a hastily concocted diatribe that violates the basic standards of scientific work, and that the book’s publishers failed to meet professional standards of editorial care and integrity. (See “The American Historical Review discredits Robert Service’s biography of Leon Trotsky”.) Neither Service nor his publisher have to date responded to this criticism or rebutted it.
The letter to Suhrkamp Verlag states: “North and Patenaude have pointed out a host of factual errors by Service… Service’s sources are unreliable. Sources that are very difficult to access and hardly verifiable for most readers often have nothing to do with the claims made, or demonstrate the opposite. Contrary to the announcement made by Suhrkamp, Service has not sought to deal with Trotsky and Stalin in an ‘impartial and genuine’ manner. Instead, the aim of his work is to discredit Trotsky, and unfortunately he often resorts to the formulas associated with Stalinist propaganda.”
The authors and signatories of the letter draw special attention to the numerous passages in which Service appeals to anti-Semitic prejudices, and cite a series of direct quotations to substantiate this. Their verdict at the end of the letter to the publisher is: “We are of the opinion that the book by Service is misplaced in your highly regarded publishing house.”
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