Person
Stephen Kotkin books: every book Stephen Kotkin wrote and recommended
Across 3 podcasts. Every show Stephen Kotkin appears on, in one place — not just one.
Books by Stephen Kotkin
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Korea at the center
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Beijing's Power and China's Borders
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Rediscovering Russia in Asia
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The cultural gradient
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Historical Legacies of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe
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Stalin
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Manchurian Railways and the Opening of China
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Steeltown, USSR
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Magnetic mountain
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Mongolia in the Twentieth Century
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Armageddon averted
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Political corruption in transition
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Uncivil Society
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Stalin Vol. I
Stephen Kotkin’s most recommended books
- Classified by David E. Bernstein
- Invisible China by Scott Rozelle
- Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
- History of madness by Michel Foucault
- Madness and Civilization by Michel Foucault
- The Education of a True Believer by Lev Kopelev
Stephen Mark Kotkin is an American historian, academic, and author. He is the Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Kotkin has appeared on podcasts such as The Ezra Klein Show, the Dwarkesh Podcast, and Conversations with Tyler to discuss international relations, Russian history, and global power structures. On The Ezra Klein Show, he recommended Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell's Invisible China as an essential data-rich resource for understanding China, and David E. Bernstein's Classified for its untold history of racial classification in America. During his appearance on the Dwarkesh Podcast, Kotkin referenced Lev Kopelev's memoir The Education of a True Believer to explain the psychological and ideological motivations of committed believers during the Soviet era. On Conversations with Tyler, he spoke about reading Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting as part of his Czech language training at Berkeley and recalled approaching philosopher Michel Foucault to ask questions about his book Madness and Civilization. Through these discussions, Kotkin utilizes historical memoirs and scholarly texts to illuminate the mechanisms of authoritarianism and intellectual history.
Books recommended by Stephen Kotkin
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Classified
Classified by David E.
Recommended“so I'll go for David Bernstein classified which is the untold story of racial classification In America”
Where to get it
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Invisible China
Invisible China by Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell is a sociological and economic examination of China's human capital crisis and the stark divide between its urban and rural populations.
Recommended“so I'll do Scott Roselle invisible China I think that's the China book that your listeners would learn the most from of all the China books”
Where to get it
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Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera is a philosophical novel structured as a kaleidoscope of interconnected stories and essays examining memory, political oppression, history, and human folly.
Discussed“just like I read kundra's a book of laughter and forgetting and after I learned Czech it was part of my Czech language training at Berkeley”
Where to get it
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History of madness
History of Madness by Michel Foucault is a comprehensive philosophical work that traces the complex evolution of psychiatric thought, societal exclusion, and the institutionalization of mental illness from the medieval era onward.
Discussed“so I went up to him as a naive with the this book Madness and civilization which we had been forced to read and I I started asking him questions what does this mean”
Where to get it
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Madness and Civilization
Madness and Civilization by Michel Foucault is an influential historical and philosophical study examining the changing social perceptions, confinement, and treatment of madness throughout the evolution of Western civilization.
Discussed“so I went up to him as a naive with the this book Madness and civilization which we had been forced to read and I I started asking him questions what does this mean”
Where to get it
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The Education of a True Believer
Discussed“We get this from Lev Kopelev, The Education of a True Believer. He was one of these people. He later then becomes a dissident. He gets forced into exile in Germany.”
Where to get it
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen Kotkin — How Stalin became the most powerful dictator in history | Dwarkesh Podcast | 2025-07-10 | 1 |
| Stephen Kotkin on Stalin, Power, and the Art of Biography | Conversations with Tyler | 2024-12-04 | 3 |
| What’s Really Going On in Russia? | The Ezra Klein Show | 2023-06-30 | 2 |
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“and dto taught me a phrase called the little tactics of the habitat which became one of the core ideas of my book my dissertation and then book magnetic Mountain about this micro power stuff”