Peter the Great: His Life and World is a 1980 text written by Robert K. Massie. The book won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.[1] The book chronicles the life of Peter I of Russia, and is divided into five parts: "Old Muscovy", "The Great Embassy", "The Great Northern War", "On the European Stage", and "The New Russia".[2][3]
It was adapted in a 1986 TV miniseries.
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Reviewing the book in the American Historical Review, James Cracraft criticized it for overlooking the main scholarly studies in English, while relying heavily on an 1884 British biography. Cracraft, while stating that he cannot recommend the book to scholars, concluded:
"A colorful, dramatic, at times gripping story is told here in fine detail and in effortless prose. The book is flawlessly printed...and generously, if not always accurately, illustrated. It far surpasses, in volume rather than in acumen or grace of style, the other popular biographies of the first Russian Emperor – by Alex de Jonge and by M. S. Anderson....It will serve to advance the cause of serious history more likely than not, among the general public".[4]
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