The histories of the less exalted in the right hands can make for fascinating reading. While much ink has been spilled writing of Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, and Hitler, less is known about how those figures affected the lives of the many who followed or opposed their paths.
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In Hotel Lux, Maurice Casey has given us a history of a forgotten set of interconnected revolutionaries. Like all good historians, Casey is a detective driven by relentless curiosity as he follows a singular reference to an Irish woman in the post-revolutionary Moscow of the 1920s. That citation launches the author on a multi-year search across multiple continents through public and often forgotten private archives.
The author’s tenacity results in a recovered set of histories of those who brushed up tangentially against some of the towering figures of the 20th century. Casey traces this group's loves, tragedies, and passions connected by their belief in a world remade through leftist thought. The group’s subsequent experiences play out over the turbulent decades that follow in disappointment and death, but also hope and resolve.
There is much to be learned from the lives of these idealistic and obscure figures who took up residence in the Hotel Lux, especially for those who dream of a better world and hope to avoid the mistakes of the past. Maurice Casey has done a service by bringing their faded lives back to prominence.
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