Person
Every book Fiona Hill recommended on podcasts
Fiona Hill appears on podcast episodes as a foreign policy expert and scholar of Russian history and politics, drawing upon her deep academic background to analyze geopolitical dynamics involving figures like Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. During her appearance on the Lex Fridman Podcast, Hill recommended Collapse by Vladislav M. Zubok, a London School of Economics professor, praising the book for providing an accurate and compelling account of the elite-driven dissolution of the Soviet Union. She noted Zubok's credentials and shared generational background as a Russian scholar from the former Soviet Union as reasons for the book's exceptional insight. Hill also reflected on her broader intellectual history and literary encounters while trying to understand the Soviet state, discussing her academic studies with Richard Pipes—who famously held possessive views over his comprehensive volumes on the Russian Revolution and grew offended by other writers tackling the subject. Additionally, Hill mentioned her long-standing engagement with translated Russian literature, noting that she read and loved Leo Tolstoy's classic War and Peace as a teenager. Through these reflections, Hill emerges as a rigorous historian whose literary and academic references are deeply intertwined with her professional analysis of international relations and Eastern European history.
Books recommended by Fiona Hill
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Collapse
Collapse by Vladislav M.
Recommended“There's a really good book called "Collapse" by Vlodislav Zubok, who is a professor at London School of Economics, at LSE. And Zubok is pretty much my age and he is from, you know, the former Soviet Union. He's Russian.”
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War and Peace
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is a sprawling epic historical novel that chronicles Russian society during the Napoleonic Wars through the intertwined fates of several aristocratic families.
Discussed“And also, you know, like many other people, I read, you know, Russian literature in translation. I'd read "War and Peace" and, you know, I'd loved the book actually.”
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Государство и революция
Discussed“I studied with Richard Pipes, and he was really offended after writing his comprehensive volumes on the Russian Revolution that others would dare to write about it.”
Books Fiona Hill wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| #335 – Fiona Hill: Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump | Lex Fridman Podcast | 2022-11-04 | 4 |
Other mentions (2: passing, ad reads, own books)
“I didn't really know what that meant. But you know, I used to go around pretending to be a nurse. I even had a little magazine called "Nurse Nancy," and I used to read this.”
“There was a famous story at that time about a vet named James Herriot, who also came to the US and had a TV miniseries.”