Communism Books - Page 3

Revolution at the Gates: Zizek on Lenin, the 1917 Writings

V. I. Lenin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Why Lenin Why Now? 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 17 people found this review helpful.

It's always fascinating why an intellectual might be drawn toward a persona, well here one of the greatest political strategists of the century, the last one. Lenin is not one one can warm up to with the vagaries of history for his succession the monstrous detour from Trotsky to Stalin.
Marx yes with his early philosophical searchings of humanism, creating a new science of historical man/woman, and then his work on capital exposing the whys and wherefors for greed, profit,work, distribution and circulation, even Wall Street Sharks find Marx interesting if detestable. But Lenin (so we are told) failed to ignite a revolution that sustained itself, and won, like it is a game of soccer!, the deep complexities of Mother Russia transforming itself after centuries of barbarism was more than formidable.

Lenin for Zizek represents a way out of the impasse of the present, the current digitalization and virtualization of reality of the consumer of the culture of un-change,(to have a revolution, you need a revolution) The neo-liberal order it is clear still requires escape valves the World Bank and the IMF, wars famines,death squads,corruption, massacres, poverty and environmental rape to sustain itself. For there is a man at the end still waiting for surplus value. Lenin's work represents a way out of the impasse of subjectivity of change. Now that deconstruction, and structuralisms, postmodernities vigours haven't produced tangible change we have returned to the Badiou-ian "truth-event" for which Lenin is a guide to action of sorts.

Lenin for Zizek was one who worked his way out of the impasse he always found himself in as best he could, where he bewildered many of this comrades adopting positions few could see the immediate results. Lenin as well had to fall backwards,while in power making compromises with the Western democracies who simply wanted a reversion to the Czar for starts,then as a pretext to steal Mother Russia for natural and strategic purposes, something a perennial pattern we find now within the Middle East. Also for the burgeoning years of the 20th Century how can we have a functioning communist state,that confiscated the property of the former ruling classes, this revolution stuff might spill over into other industrial powers as it almost did in Germany.
The tour de force here is Zizek's essay "Repeating Lenin", a turgid yet focused theoretical romp into Left iconic history, shibboleths with Hegel and Lacan by his side. Zizek for instance finds affinity with Adorno's "Negative Dialectics", as another impasse similar to Lenin's "Philosophical Notebooks" of 1915. Both found themselves working their way through a reality. With Lenin though he assumed completion, the seizure of power, whereas with Adorno he found no way out toward change; cultural political or otherwise.

Lenin's primary texts are here reproduced, ones Zizek found useful.

Editorial Review:

Lenin's writings of 1917 are testament to a formidable political figure. They reveal his ability to grasp the significance of an extraordinary moment in history. Whatever the discussion—the forthcoming crisis of capitalism, the possibility of redeeming violence, the falsity of liberal tolerance—Slavoj Zizek believes that Lenin's time has come again.

Romantic Revolutionary: A Biography of John Reed

Robert A. Rosenstone

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

An exceptional examination of an exceptional life! 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

An epic tour-de-force which examines the fascinating life of John Reed, the only American to be buried in the Kremlin Wall. An ecclectic mix of personalities - from Lenin to Gertrude Stein, from Lincoln Steffens to Teddy Roosevelt - pass thru the tapestry which was Reed's life, each having their own unique impact on the art which remains. From his childhood in stoic Portland Oregon to his years in Harvard and New York to his coming of age in Mexico covering the Villa revolution, Reed absorbed experience and reflected his concept of justice and equality in his writing. Each stop along the way was preparation for Reed's ultimate mission - to report on the earth-shattering 1917 Russian Revolution. The book "Ten Days in October" is still the seminal work on the topic, and this book delves into the evolution of Reed from middle-class dabbler to full-blown Socialist commentator. Mr. Rosenstone does the man justice - well-documented, fair, and without overt "gushiness". An exceptional read.

Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (Annals of communism)

John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A High Standard of Scholarship 4 out of 5 stars.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.

In his book, A People's History of the United States, historian Howard Zinn described the Communist Party of the United States of America as a Party "known to pay special attention to the problem of race equality." Zinn said very little about communist espionage in the United States, and instead emphasized the roles of communist activists in the labor movement and the civil rights movement. Zinn is characteristic of leftist American historians who are quick to describe the Red Scare as an assault on civil liberties and ignore the very real threat posed by radical groups in the United States. Unfortunately for scholarship, their paradigm is regarded as mainstream.

John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr have produced a scholarly work that forces the reader to rethink the notion of the American Marxist as a benign reformer. Decoding Soviet Espionage uses hard evidence gleaned from decoded past Soviet diplomatic traffic to expose the espionage of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Theodore Alvin Hall, Harry Dexter White, Armand Hammer, Lauchlan Currie and literally hundreds of others. Haynes and Klehr prove that the members of the CPUSA regularly stole technology and information from their employers: private industry and the Federal Government. Moreover, they had absolutely no moral qualms about doing this, since they regarded the Federal Government and private corporations as illegitimate, repressive organizations that would soon be replaced by a revolutionary utopia. Haynes' and Klehrs' thesis is convincing and compelling.

Although an anti-communist bias becomes quickly apparent, Haynes and Klehr manage to establish a neutral, scholarly tone throughout the book and avoid falling into a shrill ideological chorus. In fact, the book gets four stars because in some places the analysis drags, as though it was a raw data report.

Decoding Soviet Espionage should be required reading in any course about the Cold War era in U.S. History.

Editorial Review:

This extraordinary book is the first to examine the thousands of documents of the super-secret Venona Project -- an American intelligence project that uncovered not only an enormous range of Soviet espionage activities against the United States during World War II but also the Americans who abetted this effort. The stunning revelations of the Venona papers, only made public in 1995, illuminate in a new way the Stalin era and early Cold War years.

Karl Marx: A Life

Francis Wheen

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Paradox and passion were the animating spirits of Karl Marx's life, which often reads like a novel by Laurence Sterne or George Eliot. "Imagine Rousseau, Voltaire, and Hegel fused into one person," said a contemporary, "and you have Dr. Marx." In this stunning book, the first major biography of Marx since the end of the Cold War, Francis Wheen gives us not a socialist ogre but a fascinating, ultimately humane man. Marx's marriage to Jenny von Westphalen, whose devotion was tested by decades of poverty and exile, is as affecting a love story offered by history, while his friendship with Friedrich Engels is by turns hilarious and inspiring. Wheen does not, however, shy away from Marx's work. Was he, as his detractors have claimed, a self-hating Jew? What did Marx really mean by his famous line, "Religion is the opiate of the masses"? Is Capital deserving of the ridicule with which modern-day economists have dismissed it? Marx lived both at the center and on the fringes of his age. He also changed the world. With Karl Marx, Francis Wheen has written a hugely entertaining biography of one of history's most unforgettable players.

The naked Communist

W. Cleon Skousen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Don't mistake communism as harmless; READ THIS BOOK! 5 out of 5 stars.
48 of 56 people found this review helpful.

I got this book as a gift from my brother, stemming from a conversation in which I said, `communism isn't really such a horrible thing, it's just not a practical form of government because greed and corruption will never allow people to share things equally'. I was given this book to correct that misunderstanding. And this book did that brilliantly.

Skousen begins with a description of the Marxist mindset, delving even into the lives and times of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Marx's colleague and probably his only friend. Such insight lays the groundwork for understanding Communism and its reasons for being, which at best are selfish and demeaning. Using proto-communists' own words, whether from the Communist Manifesto or from correspondence among Marx and others, Skousen shows that the very philosophical foundations of Marxism and Communism are flawed and misleading. For myself, I began to understand that Marx's bitterness about his own station in life and his seeming inability to function in a competitive, capitalist world led him to a philosophy that claimed it could undo all the so-called iniquities of that capitalist world. Thus the myth of Communism as a great equalizer was born.

Many people, myself once included, tend to think that that is all there is to Communism: everyone is equal and all possessions are shared equally. Others claim that the Bible provides support for this way of life and that the communal life described therein is an early example of Communism. Still others might claim that our founding fathers would have approved of Communism because of its purported equality. Skousen aptly debunks these and other misconceptions surrounding Communism and Marxist theory. He then moves on to describe, again using their own words, how Communism calls for violent, subversive acts in order to bring about revolution so that the common workers may seize power.

Following this harrowing exposure of Communism is a blistering tour of late 19th and early 20th century history, detailing in particular the genesis and early activities of the Communist party in Europe and ultimately Russia. Let's just say that, having investigated some of the historical dates myself, I am surprised at how often the history of the Bolshevik revolution is sanitized and portrayed as some sort of liberation of the masses from the Tsars. I'm further surprised to learn that a democratic and limited monarchy was in the works to replace the oppression of the Tsars in the wake of Bloody Sunday when the Bolsheviks hijacked the revolution and drove the country toward Communism instead. How? All I can say is read the book. You might find some disturbing parallels to current events.

Skousen then proceeds through the Depression and WWII years (a major eye-opener for me, and I'm a serious WWII history buff) and follows with a perspective of the early Cold War years that I found informative. All in all, this book is fundamental in understanding the true nature of Communism, its distinction from the more benign forms of socialism, and the hypocritical way many people distinguish the despicable acts of Communists from those equally pernicious acts perpetrated by the Nazis. By the time you finish this book, you will either dismiss it all blithely or you will come to understand that Lenin and Stalin were as evil in many respects as Hitler and his cabal were. But if you think that Communism is just another form of government, or just another political party, or even just a harmless, altruistic philosophy, then you NEED to read this book. I did and I have never looked at history, or current events the same way since.

Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (Fred W Morrison Series in Southern Studies)

Robin D. G. Kelley

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Between 1929 and 1941, the Communist Party organized and led a radical, militantly antiracist movement in Alabama—the center of Party activity in the Depression South. Hammer and Hoe documents the efforts of the Alabama Communist Party and its allies to secure racial, economic, and political reforms. Sensitive to the complexities of gender, race, culture and class without compromising the political narrative, Robin Kelley illustrates one of the most unique and least understood radical movements in American history.

The Alabama Communist Party was built from scratch by working people who had no Euro-American radical political tradition. It was composed largely of poor blacks, most of whom were semiliterate and devoutly religious, but it also attracted a handful of whites, including unemployed industrial workers, iconoclastic youth, and renegade liberals. Kelley shows that the cultural identities of these people from Alabama's farms, factories, mines, kitchens, and city streets shaped the development of the Party. The result was a remarkably resilient movement forged in a racist world that had little tolerance for radicals.

In the South race pervaded virtually every aspect of Communist activity. And because the Party's call for voting rights, racial equality, equal wages for women, and land for landless farmers represented a fundamental challenge to the society and economy of the South, it is not surprising that Party organizers faced a constant wave of violence.

Kelley's analysis ranges broadly, examining such topics as the Party's challenge to black middle-class leadership; the social, ideological, and cultural roots of black working-class radicalism; Communist efforts to build alliances with Southern liberals; and the emergence of a left-wing, interracial youth movement. He closes with a discussion of the Alabama Communist Party's demise and its legacy for future civil rights activism.

Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women's Liberation (Reconfiguring American Political History)

Kate Weigand

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Much needed piece of history 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 13 people found this review helpful.

This is a well-documented, even-handed account of the influence American communism had on the second wave of the women's movement. Weigand is thoroughly convincing in her assertation that in the 30s, 40s and 50s, the American Communist Party began an important dialogue on sexism, culture, the politics of everyday life and the intersectionality of race, class and gender that carried into the rise of the second wave in the 1960s (and indeed into today). Weigand takes on the notion that feminists in the 1960s had no foremothers (and fathers) to draw from. Instead she argues that young feminists had a sizable collection of literature analyzing gender relations, many of them grew up in families modeled on gender equality and that young feminists interacted with women who had been key in Communist discussions on sexism. What I really like about this book is that it reminds us of how long the struggle for equality has been and (as the author says) how we still grapple with these issues. A very important book for any one who cares about the past, present and future of gender equality in this society. I am recommending it to all my friends.

Editorial Review:

Drawing on substantial new research, Red Feminism traces the development of a distinctive Communist strain of American feminism from its troubled beginnings in the 1930s, through its rapid growth in the Congress of American Women during the early years of the Cold War, to its culmination in Communist Party circles of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The author argues persuasively that, despite the devastating effects of anti-Communism and Stalinism on the progressive Left of the 1950s, Communist feminists such as Susan B. Anthony II, Betty Millard, and Eleanor Flexner managed to sustain many important elements of their work into the 1960s, when a new generation took up their cause and built an effective movement for women's liberation. Red Feminism provides a more complex view of the history of the modern women's movement, showing how key Communist activists came to understand gender, sexism, and race as central components of culture, economics, and politics in American society.

Terrorism and Communism (Revolutions)

Leon Trotsky

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

defense of equality 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 5 people found this review helpful.

this was Trotsky's bout with one-time Marxist Karl Kautsky, representative of Social-Democracy,revolution,the affinity for parliamentarian incremental change through bourgeois means; ballot-boxes, sitting sovereigns, capital comforted with safety nets, and the context here is Soviet Russia was waiting(isolated) for assistance from the German Revolution to happen which just eroded away with the murder of Rosa Luxemberg, curious that the word "terror" has magnetized itself around it new multi-dimensional meanings,the media has done wonderful work bundling the word "terror" with anything resembling opposition, I doubt if Israeli apparatchiks could speak on TV without utilizing the word a few dozen times, to define, fears fears-of-fears, Unknown-Knowns-Fears,Known-Knowns, the Rumsfeldian epistemology,still there is some marvelous reflections here from Trotsky on the Paris Commune,the balance of power in the shape of the globe circa 1920; the paradigms of power and the next thread in its evolution, Kautsky simply wanted to preserve, the Known-Knowns,without seeking to face those monstrous Un-Knowns, he didn't have a sensibility for such dangers, Trotsky did up to a point,but was blind of his own fate, yet here there is good analysis of the reality of aftermath Soviet situations prior to the Stalin Thermidor was to take root,a vastly involutarily trained endoctrinated marxologist himself I suspect Zizek is looking for cognitive "threads"in shapes resembling Badiou-ian " Truth" nodes, "Events" which can illumine a path perhaps simply to more discussions on youtube within the world un-evolving postpoltical context, with bio-politics, and the neo-liberal order at the helms stirring the ship with their own cognitive maps. Zizek is good at what he does, and leaves out the residue of rhetorical hatreds you still odiously find on the Left,fighting self-defeating battles merely to hear one's own voice, I like to recall the old RCA white putchee dog, staring mindlessly into vinyl playing speaker cone; "What's this?" like the Left does today for things they refuse to explain, Zizek has a Wotan-like spirit in these Verso writings assignments assembling his theoretical "Walkure" to assist him;

Editorial Review:

Revolutions: Classic revolutionary writings set ablaze by today's radical writers. This essential new series features classic texts by key figures who took center-stage during a period of insurrection. Each book is introduced by a major contemporary radical writer who shows how these incendiary words still have the power to inspire, to provoke and maybe to ignite new revolutions...

Soon after the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky led the Red Army against the counter-revolutionary White armies. Written in the white heat of the Civil War, Terrorism and Communism is one of the most potent defenses of revolutionary dictatorship of the twentieth century. In his provocative commentary in this new edition the coruscating critic Slavoj Zizek argues that Trotsky's attack on the illusions of democracy has a vital relevance to today.

New Lies For Old: T

ANATOLIY GOLITSYN

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

If true, their plans have backfired 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Putin's recent behavior lends credence to this book, however look at what was lost by the Soviets. The entire Warsaw pact is now a part of NATO, including the three Baltic States, which were part of the Soviet Union. The U.S. is very popular in that part of the world. There are U.S. military forces in former Soviet repuplics in the south. Some of these new allies are now getting American military equipment. The former Warsaw pact nations ARE democracies and are becoming culturally and economically integrated with the West. All of the dirty laundry of the Soviet "Potemkin Village" has been exposed to the world. The Iron Curtain is no more. Paul McCarney did a rock concert in Red Square that filled the joint with more people than Stalin ever could. The U.S. still has at least six thousand nuclear warheads (It would only take a few dozen to blow Russia into the middle ages). The Russian army has a tough time controlling Chechnia. Many of its troops were having problems getting paid and feeding their families. The former Soviet Navy is rusting in ports.

The idea that this is all a conspiracy to lull the West to sleep is far fetched. What kind of nuts in the KGB could think that such a series of events would strengthen the position of the former Soviet Union.

It is true that Russia is a threat. It is a quasi fascist hybrid that is becoming more fascist every day and probably will result in a resumption of the Cold war some day, but they will be weaker this time around. This is a natural part of Russian paranoia and their preference for authoritarianism, not a part of some old plot hatched in the Kremlin decades ago.

Conspiracy theories break down because they presume that the conspirators have total control of very complex events. They ignore the fact that "stuff happens" to the best plans of mice and men. The more grandiose the conspiracy, the less likely it is to succeed.

There are certainly conspiracies. But only the smallest ones have a chance to succeed.

Frankly, the real problem is China. Every time we buy something at WalMart or Best Buys or you name it, we are funding the Chinese military industrial complex. What do we buy from Russia except Vodka? "When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will sell us the rope"..Vladimir I. Lenin. Intel is building the most advanced micro-electronics plant in the world..in China. China has 1.6 billion people.

The Chinese factor affects Russia too. Siberia, which has vast energy resources and practically no people will be a prime target for the Chinese, as their need for energy increases. That's another example of "Stuff happens."

Golitsyn's conspiracy theory has huge holes and reality is running wild. The conspirators sure got this one wrong.

Inside Out: A Memoir of the Blacklist

Walter Bernstein

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

First time in paperback: By an acclaimed writer blacklisted in the anti-Communist hysteria of the McCarthy era,"the best book on the Blacklist I have read"-Arthur Miller

During World War II, Walter Bernstein was a correspondent for the U.S. Army magazine Yank; after the war, he joined the Communist Party. When Senator Joseph McCarthy began his notorious witch hunt for Communists in the late 1940s, Bernstein-a writer for film and television-found himself blacklisted. For a decade he would scrape a living together by selling scripts through front men. Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post has called Inside Out "a lovely piece of work...a memoir of the blacklist that, without minimizing any of its offenses or forgiving any of its architects, finds humanity and humor in the period." The author vividly recalls an entertainment community torn between those who were willing, and those who refused, to denounce their friends, and he provides unforgettable glimpses of leading Hollywood figures such as Burt Lancaster, Elia Kazan, Bette Davis, and Zero Mostel. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer has hailed this as, simply, "the best personal account of the era."