A Princeton historian, J. T. Miller, agreed.

Among them was Bernard Lewis, the Princeton historian who wrote the best-selling "What Went Wrong?

"It's been diluted to the point where it's a very thin gruel," said the Princeton historian Lawrence Stone.

Stephen F. Cohen, a Princeton historian and specialist on Bukharin, said today, "The repeal of Bukharin's conviction is a radical act of anti-Stalinism."

A biographer of Bukharin, the Princeton historian Stephen F. Cohen, said today that the play was an important step toward repairing history.

"This is commercial thuggery, literally," said Stanley N. Katz, a Princeton historian and president of the council, who referred to Macmillan witheringly as part of "the infotainment industry."

It is the subject of "Steeltown, USSR," a firsthand account by a young Princeton historian who, Soviet authorities say, was the first American to visit the city in 45 years.

But Stephen F. Cohen, the Princeton historian, takes a long perspective, cautioning that Russia moves very slowly, usually in gray areas where dichotomies and clear-cut categories do not exist.

Ben always remembered what his college mentor, the Princeton historian John Barnes Godwin, used to say: Calculate the odds, and recalculate, and recalculate again.

That had to be Ben's college mentor, the Princeton historian John Barnes Godwin.