Bertrand Patenaude
Bertrand M. Patenaude (born 1956) is an American historian who works as a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and lecturer at Stanford University. He lectures on history and international relations at Stanford with a focus on the politics and history of Russia and modern Europe.
Early life and education
Patenaude was born in 1956. He was educated at Boston College, from which he received his B.A. degree. He later studied as a graduate student at the University of Vienna from 1977 to 1978,[1] received his M.A. degree from Stanford in 1979, and his Ph.D. in history from Stanford in 1987.[2][3]
Career and publications
From 1992 to 2000, Patenaude taught in the national security affairs department of the Naval Postgraduate School. At the school, he was awarded the Schieffelin Award for Teaching Excellence two years in a row.[3] He reviews books for mass-market and scholarly publications, including The Wall Street Journal newspaper.[4] Patenaude and historian Robert Service have reviewed each other's works in the scholarly literature;[5][6] both have published biographies on Leon Trotsky.[7] Patenaude has also engaged in published academic polemics with scholar Lars T. Lih on the topic of war communism.[8]
Patenaude's first book, The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921, was published by Stanford University Press in 2002.[4][9] Patenaude has published widely on Trotsky, including books Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary, released by HarperCollins in 2010,[10][11] and Stalin's Nemesis: The Exile and Murder of Leon Trotsky, published the same year by Faber & Faber.[12][13] A book by Patenaude on the Soviet famine of 1921, Bread + Medicine: American Famine Relief in Soviet Russia, 1921–1923, was published by the Hoover Institution Press in 2023.[14] He also gave an online presentation on American relief given during the famine to the Russian History Museum in Jordanville, New York.[15] Patenaude made the Bread + Medicine project a part of his class on early Soviet Russia, assigning students to look through historical materials collected at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives.[16]
In 2022, Patenaude curated an exhibit at the Hoover Institution on the 1921 Soviet famine.[17] He was also a panelist at a 2023 film screening on the same topic.[2] At Stanford, his lecturing includes courses on history, international relations, and human rights, including teaching recurring course "The U.S., U.N. Peacekeeping, and Humanitarian War" on American and United Nations involvement in humanitarian interventions. He also serves as a faculty fellow at Stanford's Center for Innovation in Global Health and a lecturer in the Center for Biomedical Ethics.[3] He has additionally lectured for Lindblad and National Geographic Society expeditions,[18] as well as for the Smithsonian Institution's Smithsonian Journeys.[19]
References
- ^ "Patenaude, Bertrand M., 1956-; Патенод, Б. (Бертран)". LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (LC Name Authority File). Library of Congress. Retrieved December 29, 2025.
- ^ a b Liu, Linda (May 3, 2023). "'America's Gift to Famine-Stricken Russia' as a propagandist display of U.S. relief efforts". The Stanford Daily.
- ^ a b c "Bertrand Patenaude". Stanford Bulletin (Profile). Stanford University. Retrieved December 28, 2025.
- ^ a b "Bertrand M. Patenaude" (Profile). Hoover Institution. Retrieved December 28, 2025.
- ^ Patenaude, Bertrand M. (June 2011). "Review: Trotsky: A Biography". The American Historical Review. 116 (3): 900–902. doi:10.1086/ahr.116.3.900.
- ^ Service, Robert (July 4, 2009). "The cry of the fox and the silence of the lambs". The Guardian.
- ^ Gill, Graeme (June 2011). "Review: Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary and Trotsky: A Biography". The Journal of Modern History. 83 (2): 476–478. doi:10.1086/659205.
- ^ Lih, Lars T.; Patenaude, Bertrand (July 1996). "Bertrand Patenaude's "Peasants into Russians"". The Russian Review. 55 (3): 494–496. doi:10.2307/131796.
- ^ Reviews include:
- Lih, Lars T. (December 2004). "Review: The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921". The Journal of Modern History. 76 (4): 1009–1011. doi:10.1086/427612.
- McFadden, David W. (June 2004). "Reivew: The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921". The American Historical Review. 109 (3): 871–872. doi:10.1086/ahr/109.3.871.
- Senese, Donald (May 2004). "Review: The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921". Social History. 37 (73). University of Ottawa and York University: 142–144.
- ^ Patenaude, Bertrand M. (2010). Trotsky. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060820695.
- ^ Reviews include:
- Johnson, Paul (October 15, 2009). "Revising the Revolution". National Review.
- Le Blanc, Paul (November 2010). "Trotsky—truth and fiction". International Socialist Review (75).
- Legvold, Robert (December 19, 2009). "Review: Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary and Trotsky: A Biography". Foreign Affairs.
- Rubenstein, Joshua (June 2011). "Review: Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary". The American Historical Review. 116 (3): 902–902. doi:10.1086/ahr.116.3.902.
- Straw, Andrew (August 31, 2011). "Review: Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary". Not Even Past. University of Texas at Austin.
- ^ Patenaude, Bertrand M. (2010). Stalin's Nemesis. Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571228768.
- ^ Reviews include:
- Ali, Tariq (October 30, 2009). "The life and death of Trotsky". The Guardian.
- Overy, Richard (June 2009). "Ice-Cold in Coyoacan". Literary Review.
- ^ Hansen, Jamie (June 23, 2023). "5 questions with Bert Patenaude on saving lives with food and medicine". Global Studies. Stanford University.
- ^ Shteinert, Anastasia (February 11, 2025). "American Famine Relief in Soviet Russia (Video)". Russian History Museum.
- ^ Ramachandran, Vignesh; Gregory, Harry (May 3, 2023). "Stanford students dive into Hoover's historical archives to uncover forgotten chapter in U.S.-Russian history". Stanford Report. Stanford University.
- ^ Lee, Serena (November 3, 2022). ""Bread + Medicine": Hoover exhibit displays American relief during the 1921 Soviet famine". The Stanford Daily.
- ^ "Expedition Team: Bert Patenaude". Lindblad Expeditions. Retrieved December 29, 2025.
- ^ "Smithsonian Journeys Experts: Bertrand Patenaude". Smithsonian Journeys. Archived from the original on August 8, 2022.
Further reading
- "Bertrand M. Patenaude" (PDF). Guide to Scholars. Hoover Institution. 2003. p. 53.
- Patenaude, Bertrand (June 29, 2023). "Famine in the Modern World". Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (Multimedia lecture). Stanford University.