Foreign thinker
Louis Fischer
Louis FischerJournalism, Historiography, and Political BiographyAmerican
Truth is the first casualty of war, but the last thing to be revived.
Life and Thought
Louis Fischer (1896–1970) was a prominent American journalist, author, and historian. He gained worldwide renown for his meticulous reporting from the Soviet Union, the Spanish Civil War, and especially for writing authoritative biographies of key historical figures, including Mahatma Gandhi and Vladimir Lenin.
Louis Fischer was born in Philadelphia in 1896. After studying education, he turned to journalism and worked as an international correspondent for prestigious publications such as The Nation. During the 1920s and 1930s, Fischer lived for years in the Soviet Union, reporting on the news and developments of post-revolutionary Russia. Although he initially expressed sympathy for the communist experiment, the onset of Stalin's purges and political repression turned him into a fierce critic of Stalinism and totalitarianism.
One of the most significant chapters of Fischer's professional life was his journey to India and his close association with Mahatma Gandhi. This connection and their in-depth conversations led him to write his famous work, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (1950); a seminal and enduring book that later became the primary source for Richard Attenborough's Oscar-winning film Gandhi.
Fischer also authored other valuable works on international politics, the Spanish Civil War, and the Middle East, and his book The Life of Lenin won the U.S. National Book Award in History and Biography in 1965. In his later years, he taught international affairs at Princeton University and passed away in 1970.
