Robert O. Paxton is Mellon Professor Emeritus of the Social Sciences at Columbia University. His other books include Parades and Politics at Vichy, Europe in the Twentieth Century,and French Peasant Fascism.
Julie Hessler is Associate Professor of History at University of Oregon. She is the author of A SOCIAL HISTORY OF SOVIET TRADE (Princeton University Press, 2004) as well as a number of articles on Soviet social, economic, and cultural history. Her current research focuses on Soviet cultural relations with the Third World from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Professor Hessler's teaching areas include Soviet history, twentieth-century Eastern Europe, postwar Europe, and historical methods, as well as broader European surveys.