A Short History of Communism

A Short History of Communism
Author :
Publisher : Macmillan
Total Pages : 596
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781466888074
ISBN-13 : 1466888075
Rating : 4/5 (075 Downloads)

Book Synopsis A Short History of Communism by : Robert Harvey

Download or read book A Short History of Communism written by Robert Harvey and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-12-23 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today global communism seems just a terrible memory, an expressionist nightmare as horrific as Nazism and the Holocaust, or the slaughter in the First World War. Was it only just over a decade ago that stone-faced old men were still presiding over "workers" paradises in the name of "the people" while hundreds of millions endured grinding poverty under a system of mind-controlling servitude which did not hesitate to murder and imprison whole populations in the cause of "progress"? Or that the world seemed under threat from revolutionary hordes engulfing one country after another, backed by a vast military machine and the threat of nuclear annihilation? In the 1970s, with the fall of South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, the march of Marxism-Leninism across the world seemed irresistible. Less than two decades later the experiment had collapsed, leaving perhaps 100 million dead, as well as economic devastation spanning continents. Even China now increasingly embraces free market economics. Only in a few backwaters does communism endure, as obsolete as rust-belt industry. This book is the first global narrative history of that defining human experience. It weighs up the balance sheet: why did communism occur largely in countries wrenched from feudalism or colonialism to twentieth-century modernism, rather than--as Marx had predicted--in developed countries groaning under the weight of a parasitic middle class? Were coercion and state planning in fact the only way forward for backward countries? What was the explanation for its appeal -- not least among many highly intelligent observers in the West? Why did it grow so fast, and collapse with such startling suddenness? A Short History of Communism sets out the whole epic story for the first time, a panorama of human idealism, cruelty, suffering and courage, and provides an intriguing new analysis.


A Short History of Communism Related Books

A Short History of Communism
Language: en
Pages: 596
Authors: Robert Harvey
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-12-23 - Publisher: Macmillan

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Today global communism seems just a terrible memory, an expressionist nightmare as horrific as Nazism and the Holocaust, or the slaughter in the First World War
Communism
Language: en
Pages: 194
Authors: Richard Pipes
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2003-08-05 - Publisher: Modern Library

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With astonishing authority and clarity, Richard Pipes has fused a lifetime’s scholarship into a single focused history of Communism, from its hopeful birth as
Communism: A Very Short Introduction
Language: en
Pages: 177
Authors: Leslie Holmes
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-08-27 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The collapse of communism was one of the most defining moments of the twentieth century. This Very Short Introduction examines the history behind the political,
The Devil in History
Language: en
Pages: 334
Authors: Vladimir Tismaneanu
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-03-14 - Publisher: University of California Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Devil in History is a provocative analysis of the relationship between communism and fascism. Reflecting the author’s personal experiences within communis
The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism
Language: en
Pages: 834
Authors: S. A. Smith
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-01-09 - Publisher: OUP Oxford

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The impact of Communism on the twentieth century was massive, equal to that of the two world wars. Until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, historians knew r