Russ Roberts on Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this crossover episode with EconTalk, Tyler joins Russ Roberts for an in-depth exploration of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate, a monumental novel often described as the 20th-century answer to Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

Russ and Tyler cover Grossman’s life and the historical context of Life and Fate, its themes of war, totalitarianism, freedom, and fate, the novel’s polyphonic structure and large cast of characters, the parallels between fascism and communism, the idea of “senseless kindness” as a counter to systemic evil, the symbolic importance of motherhood, the psychology of confession and loyalty under totalitarian systems, Grossman’s literary influences including Chekhov, Tolstoy, Dante, and Stendhal, individual resilience and moral compromises, the survival of the novel despite Soviet censorship, artificial intelligence and the dehumanization of systems, the portrayal of scientific discovery and its moral dilemmas, the ethical and emotional tensions in the novel, the anti-fanatical tone and universal humanism of the book, Grossman’s personal life and connections to its themes, and the novel's enduring relevance and complexity.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded November 4th, 2024.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,
0:09.4	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.
0:13.5	Learn more at Mercadis.org.
0:15.7	For a full transcript of every conversation enhanced with helpful links,
0:20.4	visit Conversations with
0:22.1	Tyler.com. Today is November 4th, 2024, and my guest is economist, author, podcaster, and
0:31.1	blogger Tyler Cowan of George Mason University. This is Tyler's 19th appearance on Econ Talk. He was last here in
0:39.1	November of 2023, discussing who is the greatest economist of all time. Our topic for today is
0:47.6	Vassili Grossman's masterpiece, Life and Fate. We will minimize spoilers, but I'd encourage you to read the book before listening,
0:55.7	if that's your habit. As I've suggested, you may want to read this on the Kindle, which makes it
1:00.8	a little easier to follow the characters because it's easy to search for them if you forget who they
1:05.5	are. This episode is also available on Tyler's podcast, Conversations with Tyler.
1:11.6	Tyler, welcome back to Econ Talk.
1:13.5	Thank you, Russ.
1:14.3	Is it a spoiler to tell them who won the war in the Battle of Stalingrad?
1:18.1	I was thinking of that.
1:19.5	I think we can reveal that.
1:20.5	Okay, that's fine.
1:21.5	Let's start then.
1:22.4	You have some introduction.
1:23.9	Well, I wanted to just say a little bit about Grossman and the book, very briefly.
1:28.8	Basilie Grossman was born in 1905 in British.
	...

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