BRENT, Jonathan 1949–

PERSONAL: Born December 2, 1949, in Chicago, IL; son of Stuart Brent (a bookstore owner); married; children: one. Education: Columbia University, B.A., 1971; University of Chicago, M.A., 1973, Ph.D., 1980.

ADDRESSES: Office—Yale University Press, P.O. Box 209040, New Haven, CT 06520-9040.

CAREER: University of Illinois—Chicago Circle, Chicago, lecturer in English and journalism, 1977–79; Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, lecturer, 1979–91, editor and assistant director of Northwestern University Press, 1981–91; Yale University, New Haven, CT, professor of Russian history, 1991–, executive editor of Yale University Press, 1991–. Visiting Alger Hiss Professor of History and Literature, Bard College, 2004.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Best of TriQuarterly, Washington Square Press (New York, NY), 1982.

(Editor) A John Cage Reader, C. F. Peters Corp. (New York, NY), 1983.

(With Vladimir P. Naumov) Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot against the Jewish Doctors, 1948–1953, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

Executive editor, "Annals of Communism" series, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1995–. Contributor of essays to Mississippi Review and other journals. Executive editor and acting editor of TriQuarterly, 1979–81; editor of Formations, University of Wisconsin Press, beginning 1984.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A biography of Isaac Babel, a Soviet and Jewish author.

SIDELIGHTS: Jonathan Brent is the executive editor of the Annals of Communism, a series published by Yale University Press in conjunction with the official archives of the former Soviet Union. Projected to be a twenty-five volume series, Annals of Communism provides Western readers access to the recorded history of the Soviet government and allows historians analyze the communist regime in a fuller context. Jacob Heilbrunn stated in the New Republic that the series "is perhaps the most authoritative source of archival revelations from the former Soviet Union" and describes works within it as follows: "One is The Secret World of American Communism, which showed, on the basis of Soviet documents, that the American Communist Party was a creature of Moscow. Another is The Unknown Lenin, edited by Richard Pipes, which confirmed that Lenin was a mass murderer who paved the way for Stalin."

In Brent's 2003 volume Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot against the Jewish Doctors, 1948–1953, the author and Russian historian Vladimir Naumov drew on previously unavailable Soviet documents to chronicle the final days of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The result, according to Jonathan Keates in the Spectator, was anything but dry. The book is "a chilling analysis of the state of mind, widespread among governments in our own day, which finds enemies more useful than friends to the maintenance of power." In the last few years of his life, Stalin began to make accusations against Jewish doctors he believed were conspiring against him. He claimed that they had been secretly killing top Soviet officials on orders from American intelligence. Stalin also believed that other Jews, again working with American spies, were conspiring to set up a nuclear attack on the Kremlin.

Brendan Driscoll explained in Booklist: "Tales of Stalin's paranoia are nothing new, but rarely are his subtle, yet relentless, machinations laid out in such intricate detail." A Publishers Weekly reviewer stated: "Brent and Naumov provide a riveting view of Stalin's modus operandi: over the course of several years, he patiently and meticulously gathered forced confessions that would weave together unrelated events … into a story of massive conspiracy." A reviewer for Contemporary Review concluded: "The authors have given us a horrifying story of government at the heart of the evil empire." According to Samuel Kassow in Forward, "for anyone with a serious interest in Stalin, this is an indispensable book."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Book, May-June, 2000, Kristin Kloberdanz, "The Son of a Legendary Chicago Bookseller, Adam Brent Follows in His Father's Footsteps."

Booklist, May 15, 2003, Brendan Driscoll, review of Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot against the Jewish Doctors, 1948–1953, p. 1635.

Capital Times (Madison, WI), March 6, 2003, Doug Moe, "Did UW Discovery Kill Stalin?," p. 2A.

Chicago Tribune, September 5, 2001, Elizabeth Taylor, "Combing through the Soviet Archives."

Chronicle of Higher Education, February 28, 1997, Scott Heller, "A Yale Editor Brings the Hidden Records of Soviet Communism to Light" and "Academic Politics Color Reactions to 'Annals of Communism' Book Series," pp. A15, A18.

Contemporary Review, October, 2003, review of Stalin's Last Crime, p. 256.

Forward, October 17, 2003, Samuel Kassow, "Killers in White Gowns."

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), March 6, 2003, Doug Saunders, "Was Stalin Killed to Avert War?"

History Today, January, 2004, Sergei Kudryashov, review of Stalin's Last Crime, p. 57.

Houston Chronicle (Houston, TX), May 12, 1999, Barbara Karkabi, "Shedding New Light on Old World; Access to Russian Archives Sparks Project," p. 1.

Independent Sunday (London, England), August 3, 2003, Ian Thomson, "Feeling Ill? Send for the Men in White Shrouds," p. 17.

Johns Hopkins Magazine, April, 2003, Dale Keiger, "Pressing On."

Journal of the American Medical Association, October 13, 2004, A. Mark Clarfield, review of Stalin's Last Crime, p. 1755.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2003, review of Stalin's Last Crime, p. 516.

Library Journal, March 1, 1985, Bill Katz, p. 72; March 15, 1987, Bill Katz, p. 67; May 15, 2003, Harry Willems, review of Stalin's Last Crime, p. 101.

Nation, January 28, 1999, Eric Alterman, "A Cold War Over the Cold War."

New Republic, October 12, 1998, Jacob Heilbrunn, "Historical Correctness."

New York Times, March 5, 2003, Michael Wines, "New Study Supports Idea Stalin Was Poisoned," p. A3; March 10, 2003, Serge Schmemann, "Poison May Have Caused Stalin's Death, but It Didn't Finish Him Off," p. A18.

Publishers Weekly, January 1, 1982, Sally Lodge, "The Best of TriQuarterly," p. 48; July 30, 1982, "Northwestern University Press to Publish Again," p. 13; February 7, 1986, Joann Davis, "Northwestern University Press to Expand Its Publishing Program This Year," p. 32; August 3, 1992, Gayle Feldman, "Yale Signs Multi-Book Deal with Russian Archive," p. 11; April 10, 1995, Norman Oder, "Soviet Archives See the Light of Day," p. 21; March 31, 2003, review of Stalin's Last Crime, p. 54.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, MO), May 25, 2003, Max Okenfuss, "Plot against Jewish Doctors Suggests Stalin Had Own Final Solution in Mind," p. F8.

Spectator, July 12, 2003, Jonathan Keates, "Constructing a Conspiracy," p. 38.

Sunday Telegraph (London, England), April 27, 2003, Rodric Braithwaite, "Stalin's Sickening Sick-Bed Strategies."

Sunday Times (London, England), April 27, 2003, Simon Sebag Montefiore, "Deadly Intrigue," p. 42.

Weekly Standard, May 19, 2003, Stephen Schwartz, "Stalin and the Jews."