Communism Books - Page 5

William Z. Foster and the Tragedy of American Radicalism (Working Class in American History)

James R. Barrett

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this trenchant work, James Barrett traces the political journey of a leading worker radical whose life and experiences encapsulate radicalism's rise and fall in the United States. A self-educated wage earner raised in the slums of a large industrial city, William Z. Foster became a brilliant union organizer who helped build the American Federation of Labor and, later, radical Trade Union Educational League. Embracing socialism, syndicalism, and communism in turn, Foster rose through the ranks of the American Communist Party to stand at the forefront of labor politics throughout the 1920s. Yet by the time he died in 1961, in a Moscow hospital far from the meat-packing plants and steel mills where he had built his reputation, Foster's political marginalism stood as a symbol for the isolation of American labor radicalism in the postwar era. Integrating both the indigenous and the international factors that determined the fate of American communism, "William Z. Foster and the Tragedy of American Radicalism" provides a new understanding of the basis for radicalism among twentieth-century American workers.

A Documentary History of Communism in Russia: From Lenin to Gorbachev

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

I expected more 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

While the book itself is of course in perfect shape, I had thought it would be more comprehensive and would also carry complete documents. Instead it is a selection of fragments. Obviously I misunderstood what it was about. The author does state in the foreword that it is intended for readers not specialised in the area, but I was looking for something more like a "white book"...

To sum up, while I can say nothing "against" the book, which might well be worth a reading for beginners, I would not recommend it to those in search of much specific detail.

Editorial Review:

An extensive revision of the valued but unobtainable 1960 edition. Nearly 300 key documents are now readily available in translation.

Revolution and Resistance in Eastern Europe: Challenges to Communist Rule

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Editorial Review:

The history of Eastern Europe during the Cold War is one punctuated by protest and rebellion. Revolution and Resistance in Eastern Europe covers these flashpoints from the Stalin-Tito split of 1948 to the dramatic collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989.Covering East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland and Romania, the authors provide comprehensive critical analysis of the varying forms of dissent in the East European socialist states. They take a comparative approach and show how the different movements affected one another. Incorporating archival material only accessible since 1989, they discuss issues such as the diverse manifestations of non-conformity among different strata of the population, the complex relationship between Moscow and the national Communist Parties, the loosening of Soviet control after 1985, and everyday resistance to state authority.This book offers a firm grounding in the tumultuous decades of communist rule, which is essential to understanding the contemporary politics of Eastern Europe.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Communism

Rodney Carlisle, James H. Lide

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Ok, however. 3 out of 5 stars.
11 of 13 people found this review helpful.

This book to its credit generally gave a good overview of the history of Communism, however, it had two major shortcommings. The first was its obvious USA centrism which was well displayed in a summary towards the end of the book refering to US deaths in Vietnam without mentioning the Vietnamese deaths (are we to think US lives are more important than Vietnamese?). Additionally, the Complete Idiots Guide to Communism asserts that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (the incident that set the official pretext for US involvement into the US/Vietnam conflict) was factually when it is generally agreed (even by the CIA) that this incident was stagged by the US military.

Secondly in the initial pages of the book it asserts that no communist or socialist government has ever gained power by means other than violent overthrough. This is plainly wrong. For such proof we need look no further than the election of Salvador Allende in Chille (susequenbtly killed by a US backed, right-wing military coup), or the recent democratic election of Hugo Charvez in Venezuela (admittedly, this may have happened after the books publication). If one cared to look through the history of socialist governments I am sure more examples could be found.

Growing Up in The People's Republic: Conversations between Two Daughters of China's Revolution (Palgrave Studies in Oral History)

Ye Weili

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In conversational style and in chronological sequence, Ye Weili and Ma Xiaodong recount their lives in China from the 1950s to the 1980s, a particularly eventful period that included the Cultural Revolution and the ensuing Communist regime. Using their own stories as two case studies, they examine the making of a significant yet rarely understood generation in recent Chinese history. They also reflect upon the mixed legacy of the early decades of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In doing so, the book strives for a balance between critical scrutiny of a complex era and the sweeping rejection of that era that recent victim literature embraces. Ultimately Ye and Ma intend to reconnect to a piece of land and a period of history that have given them a sense of identity. Their stories contain intertwining layers of personal, generational, and historical experiences. Unlike other memoirs that were written soon after the events of the Cultural Revolution, Ye and Ma's narratives have been put together some twenty years later, allowing for more critical distance. The passage of time has allowed them to consider important issues that other accounts omit, such as the impact of gender during this period of radical change in Chinese women's lives.

Out of the Night: The Memoir of Richard Julius Herman Krebs alias Jan Valtin (NABAT)

Jan Valtin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A bestseller in 1941, selected by the Book of the Month Club for a special edition and described by Book of the Month Club News as: ". . . full of sensational revelations and interspersed with episodes of daring, of desperate conflict, of torture, and of ruthless conspiracy . . . It is, first of all, an autobiography the like of which has seldom been."

The son of a seafaring father, Richard Julius Herman Krebs, a.k.a. Jan Valtin, came of age as a bicycle messenger during a maritime rebellion. His life as an intimate insider account of the dramatic events of 1920's and 1930s, where he rose both within the ranks of the Communist Party and on the Gestapo hit list. Known for his honesty and incredible memory, Krebs dedicated his life to the Communist Party, rising to a position as head of maritime, organizing worldwide for the Comintern, only to flee the Party and Europe to evade his own comrade's attempts to kill him. As a professional revolutionary, agitator, spy and would-be assassin, Krebs traveled the globe from Germany to China, India to Sierra Leon, Moscow to the United States where a botched assassination attempt landed him a stint in San Quentin.

From his spellbinding account of artful deception to gain release from a Nazi prison and his work as a double-agent within the Gestapo, to his vivid depiction of a Communist Party fraught with intrigue and subterfuge, Krebs gives an unflinching portrayal of the internal machinations of both parties.

Writing at age 36 under the name Jan Valtin, Krebs lays bare a young life filled with idealism and devotion-disillusionment and loss-in a world full of revolutionary promise gone immeasurably wrong.

"An exciting, real book without a trace of unnecessary melodrama."-H.G.Wells

A new view of society and other writings (Everyman's library, ed. by Ernest Rhys. Science. [no. 799])

Robert Owen

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The Passing of an Illusion : The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century

Francois Furet

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Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

François Furet was acknowledged as the twentieth century's preeminent historian of the French Revolution. But years before his death, he turned his attention to the consequences and aftermath of another critical revolution—the Communist revolution. The result, Le passé d'une illusion, is a penetrating history of the ideological passions that have fueled and characterized the modern era.

"This may well be the most illuminating study ever devoted to the question of appeal exerted not only by Communism but also by the Nazi and other fascist varieties of totalitarianism in this century."—Hilton Kramer, New Criterion

"A subtle, nuanced but gripping study of the most pervasive and destructive illusion in the 20th century." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"The Passing of an Illusion . . . is both a profound work of intellectual history that takes its place alongside other great studies of the leftist heresy . . . and a relentless diagnosis of the self-subversive risks that are inherent in democratic regimes. "—Roger Kaplan, Washington Times

" A remarkable book. . . . Stimulating and challenging. . . . A man widely read in several languages, Furet clearly knew his way around 20th-century Europe, even unto the dark alleys that figure on no existing map. "—Mark Falcoff, Commentary

"A history of ideas, this work is not for the faint of heart, yet those who challenge it will discover a signal contribution to the literature of Communism."—Booklist

"Imperious and stunningly confident, grand in conception and expansive in manner, packed with fascinating detail and often incisive judgements."—John Dunn, Times Higher Education Supplement

"The Passing of an Illusion is brilliant, and one would be hard pressed to find better writing of history than the first chapter, which traces the roots of modern political thinking back to the nineteenth century."—J. Arch Getty, Atlantic Monthly

"A brilliant and important book. . . . The publication of the American edition makes accessible to the general reader the most thought-provoking historical assessment of communism in Europe to appear since its collapse."—Jeffrey Herf, Wall Street Journal

François Furet (1927-1997), educator and author, was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and was elected, in 1997, to become one of the "Forty Immortals" of the Académie Française, the highest intellectual honor in France. His many books include Interpreting the French Revolution, Marx and the French Revolution, and Revolutionary France. Deborah Furet, his widow, collaborated with him on many projects.

The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79

Ben Kiernan

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Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Khmer Rouge revolution turned Cambodia into killing fields, as the Pol Pot regime murdered or starved to death a million and a half of Cambodia's eight million inhabitants. This book - a comprehensive study of the Pol Pot regime - describes the violent origins, social context and course of the revolution, providing an answer to the question of why a group of Cambodian intellectuals imposed genocide on their own country. Ben Kiernan draws on more than 500 interviews with Cambodian refugees, survivors and defectors, as well as on a collection of previously unexplored archival material from the Pol Pot regime (including Pol Pot's secret speeches). He recounts how in the first few days after Cambodia became Democratic Kampuchea in 1975, authorities evacuated all cities, closed hospitals, schools, monasteries, and factories, and abolished the use of money. For nearly four years, the country was a prison-camp state, the countryside was "cleansed" of minorities and a war was fought against Vietnam. Exploring the nature of the regime that enforced such a revolution, Kiernan shows that its atrocities - the widespread massacres, forced assimilation of minorities, and foreign alliances and wars - can be explained by its ideological preoccupation with racist and totalitarian policies. Kiernan concludes with a description of the resistance movements that sprang up and the destruction of the regime by Vietnamese forces in 1979.

Che Guevara Speaks: Selected Speeches and Writings

Ernesto Guevara

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Che Guevara Speaks: Selected Speeches and Writings 1 out of 5 stars.
6 of 26 people found this review helpful.

Anyone who has believed the myth of Che Guevara should read not only this book, but also the denunciation of his victims.

These speeches are mere propaganda a-la Stalin and Fidel Castro.

His victims, those who survived this man's criminal career, speak from their hearts and not from the powerful position that people like Che Guevara used to oppressed the Cuban people,

These faked prophets denied the Cuban people the freedom they professed were bringing!

Che Guevara today is no more that a sad caricature of what once was a powerful Orwellian propaganda machine.

The truth about this man will show up. Many were duped. Many wanted to believe this man. He died the same way he treated hundreds of Cubans in the firing squad under his direct orders.

The best of Che 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This book contains some of the great works of Ernesto Che Guevara, such as, "Socialism and Man in Cuba," a classic, and the speech to the Tricontinental Congress where he called for "Two, Three, Many Vietnams." If you only know Che as an icon on a poster or t-shirt, buy this book to read what he had to say.

Editorial Review:

A faithful reflection of Che as he was, or, better, as he developed -- from the preface by Joseph Hansen. Includes works not available elsewhere in English.

2nd Edition