The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics)

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"A spectre is haunting Europe," Karl Marx and Frederic Engels wrote in 1848, "the spectre of Communism." This new edition of The Communist Manifesto, commemorating the 150th anniversary of its publication, includes an introduction by renowned historian Eric Hobsbawm which reminds us of the document's continued relevance. Marx and Engels's critique of capitalism and its deleterious effect on all aspects of life, from the increasing rift between the classes to the destruction of the nuclear family, has proven remarkably prescient. Their spectre, manifested in the Manifesto's vivid prose, continues to haunt the capitalist world, lingering as a ghostly apparition even after the collapse of those governments which claimed to be enacting its principles.

Book Description

Originally published on the eve of the 1848 European revolutions, The Communist Manifesto is a condensed and incisive account of the worldview Marx and Engels developed during their hectic intellectual and political collaboration. Formulating the principles of dialectical materialism, they believed that labor creates wealth, hence capitalism is exploitive and antithetical to freedom.

This new edition includes an extensive introduction by Gareth Stedman Jones, Britain's leading expert on Marx and Marxism, providing a complete course for students of The Communist Manifesto, and demonstrating not only the historical importance of the text, but also its place in the world today.

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Still relevant today both as a historical document and as a stirring call for social democracy, this New Albion edition includes Engel's extensive footnotes from the various editions, plus the changing Prefaces written first by Marx and Engels, and later by Engels alone, plus notes on the Manifesto and the various translations of it.

Customer Reviews:

The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-14

Well, if you are a student of Philosophy or economics you must make this a part of your reading whether you want to or not. It is not long. It is not difficult. It is quite explicit. And after you read it you should have a better understanding of where you personally stand politically. I am not going to comment on what it says or advocates. Read it and find out for yourself. You won't need an interpreter.

Must have for any wannabe idealist.......2007-09-10

Well, obviously I havent read this fascinating piece of litrerature, but thats because a read book just looks so scruffy on my beautiful capitalist shelves.
This book makes me look a lot more sympathetic to all those wannabe commies, so why not dish out on a copy too?
Nah just joking, just read it and decide for yourself.

Political Classic...read for historical insight.......2007-06-27

My son required a copy of "The Communist Manifesto" for a philosophy class. After he was done with it, I decided to read it since this was one of the founding documents for Communism.

I found it difficult to decide how to rate this book. The presentation of Manifesto by Penguin in this book is excellent. The central ideas of the Manifesto itself are disturbing.

Should you read the Communist Manifesto? Yes. Is this a good presentation? Yes. Was Communism envisioned by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels a good idea? No. So I have compromised between the excellent presentation and the ideas espoused by the Manifesto in selecting an average rating.

Some reviewers feel that the Manifesto's critique of capitalism is right on; I have grave doubts. Marx and Engels were critiquing capitalism from an ivory tower. Their remedies for capitalism show that they had no real experience or contact with the workers in the trenches.

Some reviewers have mentioned the changing of labor laws due to the Manifesto, such as child labor laws (a generally agreed good thing). I believe those laws would have changed if the Manifesto had never been written. I believe those reviewers are seeing cause and effect relationships where there is none. I believe labor leaders in non-Communist states, pushing for change in labor laws, did not need belief in Communism behind them to push for change. Even without Communism, they would have done what they did anyways because the labor leaders came up from the laboring trenches. They knew first hand the abuses going on. The writers of the Manifesto did not; their ideas were theoretical. I know my ideas, in this area, are conjectures of what would have happened without the Manifesto, without Communism; there is no way they can be proven, history cannot be rewritten.

The remedy proposed by Marx and Engels is frightening. It foreshadows exactly how Communism gave birth to totalitarian states, to Communist dictatorships. Their remedy for capitalism requires a select group of leaders (Communist elitists) to force Communism onto the populace for the good of the people. We should all be suspicious of anyone who professes an idea that is for the good of the people because it invariably is not good for the people. To paraphase Lord Acton, "power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely," and the states envisioned by the writers of the Manifesto set up perfect conditions of absolute power (for the good of the people) which in practice led to absolutely corrupt power. History has shown there has been extreme abuse by Communist leaders, who became power meglomanics, of the masses of workers in their states.

Indeed, history has repeatedly shown that the concentration of power in the hands of a select few led to abuse of power. The smaller the select, the greater the abuse. This has been true regardless of the political theories espoused by the leaders. Let this be a cautionary tale to all of us.

A Must Read.......2007-06-23

It amazes me that the effects of cold war propaganda drivel still permeates the minds of most Americans. This is easily one of the most influential works since it's publication in the 19th century. To say something along the lines that the pages should be torn out and used as paper airplanes is like saying the literary masterpieces Dickens should be used as toilet paper. Disagree with it all you want but at least acknowledge it's influence and respect it, as several reviewers have. Don't simply pigeonhole a great work due to the ignorance or American cold war dogma. If you are going to rant about this work at least get your facts straight. Hitler is not a communist..never was. As a matter of fact he hated communism just as much as most Americans do. Second, recognize communism is an ideal, just a capitalism is may I add, and there never has been a purely communistic state. If you are going to give this work a bad rating at least pretend you have read it. Most of the bad reviews are complete drivel and it is obvious the work has not been read. Give a reason why you do not like the book. Simply saying it sucks is not very insightful. Finally, do not give this a bad review simply because you cannot understand what is being said. If the merit of literary works were based upon how something is being said rather than what is being said Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Milton would not be considered literary geniuses.

A Misleading Edition.......2007-06-14

The following is the composure of the book:
pg. 1-170 Introduction by Translator
pg. 170-240 Various Prefaces of Other Editions by the Authors
pg. 240-280 The Manifesto

For those not familiar with Marx, who want to read the introduction and gain new insights--this is a brilliant setup.

For those who would rather just pay $2 for the Manifesto itself--this is disappointing.

Recommended for the student of philosophy, not the professor.

Average customer rating:

A classic compendium of Marxist thought
Essential Marx, all in one volume
Essay: Alienation from Humanity, on Marx and Mill
Essential Works Of Marxs & Engels For the Beginner!
The best collection we have

The Marx-Engels Reader, Second Edition
Robert C. Tucker , and Friedrich Engels
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 039309040X

Customer Reviews:

A classic compendium of Marxist thought.......2007-06-03

Whether or not one is a Marxist, knowledge of Marx' work is important in understanding the variety of political philosophizing over the millennia. Marx' political thought is sometimes difficult (think the "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844") and sometimes transparent (e.g., "The Manifesto of the Communist Party," more popularly referred to as the "Communist Manifesto").

This edited work is one of the best introductions to the works of Marx (and Engels). The volume begins with the early Marx, which includes the "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844," excerpts from "The Holy Family" (in which he attacks some of the other socialists of the era), "Theses on Feuerbach," and the first of the truly classic works that Marx and Engels co-authored, "The German Ideology." It is interesting to note that "The German Ideology" covers much the same territory as "The Holy Family," with the major exception that Marx now addresses the intriguing and offbeat work by Max Stirner, "The Ego and His Own." In the process of addressing Stirner, Marx and Engels take the philosophical edifice to a more powerful level, creating a new perspective with a move away from idealism and toward materialism.

Other major works included are excerpts from "Das Kapital" (fairly turgid reading, I fear), the "Manifesto of the Community Party" (which ends with the famous phrase [page 500]) "The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains."), the "Critique of the Gotha Program," and "The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" (with its great introductory phrase [page 594] "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.").

The final section of the work features the work of Engels, including "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific," "Anti-Duhring," "The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State."

If one be interested in learning more about Marx (and Engels), this is an accessible edited work that provides some of the key works.

Essential Marx, all in one volume.......2007-05-19

If you're looking for a single volume collection of Marx (and a little Engels), this is the one you want. The other reviewers list some of the selections, but the bottom line is: if you've heard of it, it's here. This is the book I keep on my shelf for those (decreasingly common) moments when I want to look up something in Marx.

The only problem lies in the production values - - the pages are thin and light weight, and the font a bit small, in order to cram it all in. If you highlight with a yellow pen, you'll be frustrated because it will bleed through worse than usual. Use a ballpoint pen or a pencil. My eyesight is still good, but if it weren't, I suspect the font size would be another frustration.

Still, if you're browsing this page, you're in the market for Marx. This is the book you want.

Essay: Alienation from Humanity, on Marx and Mill.......2005-06-07

The modern age is a dangerous age, an age in which we might be alienated from that individual independence in work and in mind which defines our humanity. Confronted by this crisis, Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill offer the world diverging solutions: annihilate the existing world and march toward communism, or guard against the dangers of the existing world as we further embrace liberal democracy. Despite these divergent paths which arise from differing views on the driving force of history, both systems aim to rescue the supreme interest of our individual humanity-for Marx, this interest lies in reaching absolute prosperity for the material man, and for Mill, it lies in the search for absolute truth for the idealistic man.

With its emphasis on individuality and diversity, Mill's theory is in a sense more encompassing than Marx's. Mill's theory, however, is fundamentally flawed in comparison to Marx's because of its ignorance of property as a danger against human liberty.

Marx sees in the industrial age the death of the property-less class. This death is brought by the industrial age's five qualities: division of labor, accumulation of capital, competition, financial crisis, and monopoly. In this age, machineries and the division of labor reduce the skillful artisans to the proletariats who merely work on one monotonous element of production. The capitalists who own the machines enlarge their capital by exploiting the proletariat's labor, leaving them only with enough to eat. Competition forces capitalists to lower prices, but this is good only until each factory produces more than demanded and a financial crisis emerges. The small capitalists are reduced to the property-less as millions of workers are swept into deeper hell. Only the biggest capitalist survives, and he becomes the monopolist who can lower wages and raise prices at whim, destroying the lives of all. (Part 1, Bourgeois and Proletarians, Manifesto of the Communist Party)

The above scenario is unavoidable because the accumulation of more capital is the only end of capital. If the capitalist stops investing capital for gains he ceases to be a capitalist, and becomes a mere consumer of goods, enjoying the fruits of old exploitations. Tragically, capital can only increase when it exploits the difference of what labor costs and labor produces, as Marx writes,

"The modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few." (Marx p484)

The rich man sitting in his patio who has inherited a million pound and who lets others manage his money has not done anything to deserve profits, indeed, since he himself did not work, his profits must come from the works of others who he exploits. In the capitalistic system, there exists no pity, only keen self-interest, "all are instruments of labour, more or less expensive to use..." (Marx p479)

The workers might die, but before their body ceases to be exploited, their mind is already died-capitalism has alienated them from their humanity which is defined by their creative productivity. This alienation from our humanity was Marx's greatest worry. Animals make nests and produce goods just as we do, however, as Marx writes,

"...a bee would put many a human architect to shame by the construction of its honeycomb cells. But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is that the architect builds the cell in his mind before he constructs it in wax... Man not only effects a change of form in the materials of nature; he also realizes his own purpose in those materials." (Chapter 7, Das Kapital)

In order to freely produce as the creativity of his mind directs him and as his productive ability allows, the material man must be endowed with control over the means of production. In the world of private property, however, the workers have turned from the master of production to the slave of the machine-they are reduced to programmed animals that produce merely for the end of survival.

The proletariat can only reassert his humanity by violent overthrowing the capitalists and through the "abolition of private property" (Marx p484). Once in communism, the workers will own the means of production and enjoy the full produces of their labor. He will be motivated to constantly transform the world into a more prosperous kingdom. As Marx writes, "In communist society, accumulated labour is but a means to widen, to enrich, to promote the existence of the labourer." (Marx p485) The abundance of material goods will allow man to work not for survival, but for his own enjoyment. In this society, there will be no family and nor religion, everything is made for the love of all and enjoyed by all. Any vestiges of private interest would result in the return to capitalism with all its evils.

To Mill, the modern life is also threatening because the voice of the majority might alienate men from their individuality. The differentiation of society is essential for the vitality of the society, and this vitality empowers men on their search for truth.

Political debates, according to Mill, have been about striking the balance between the ruler and ruled. It is necessary for the ruled to have a ruler in order to preserve peace and law, yet the elected or unelected ruler's power must be restrained so that he does not abuse it against the ruled. In contrast to Marx's class struggle, this "struggle between liberty and authority" (p59) from Mill is more amiable. In the current era of democratic nations, however, since the ruled are also the rulers, the opposition no longer exists. People feel that all actions taken by the people's government will be good for the people, and hence they lose the old vigilance against the invasion of public power into their private spheres. The voice of the majority becomes the equivalent of the truth and justice.

Mill is worried that this majority voice will obstruct man's search for truth, the attaining of which is the goal of life. Truth is not reached once and then preserved for eternity, it is an organic being with a thousand facets whose survival requires continued inputs of each person's active mind. This truth is the individual treasure of each being, fitting perfectly to his taste and preferences; yet it is also a truth for the whole community, since it is only through the struggles of different truths that humanity as a whole reaches a higher truth-a higher level for the activation of the mind. As Mill writes, "There is always need of persons not only to discover new truths and point out when what were once truths are true no longer" (p71) If the majority religion is the only religion and taste the only taste, then people will no longer think but simply follow; society will be bogged into the swamp of mediocrity with a mind that is dead. Marx also feared the death of the mind, the mind of the creative worker. Despite the differences, both philosophers are concerned about the destruction of man's defining qualities.

To counter this, Mill proclaims that the only defense for "interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self-protection." (p68). The government must be restrained in the sphere of public affairs, and individuals shall live as free as they want to following their individual passions.

Marx and Mill both want to regain humanity. In one case, the enemy is the benumbing effects of majority rule, and man's mind for truth is debased forever into mediocrity, in the other case, the enemy comes from the benumbing effects of subjugation to the machine, and the man is turned from the master of production into the slaves of capital.

The core difference between the two theories in practical operation arises from their different views on individuality (both systems serve individuals as their ends, however, individuality, allowing people to be different, are treated differently). For Mill, we must preserve individuality to bring truth (Chapter 3, On Liberty), but for Marx, the destruction of private property is the only task. The communistic society will be a union in which man can "...hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner..." (The German Ideology). This free life of a communist in communism is all good until one day the comrade does not want to be a communist anymore-but he must be one, there is no choice. In Communism, one does not have the individual liberty to have families, nor try to build a little store of private wealth.

On the other side, if someone in Mill's world decides to be a communist, he has the full right to do so. He can even segregate himself away with his friends and enjoy the life of a commune. In another word, Marxism can not destroy Mill's democracy-it will just be one of the many ways of thinking allowed by the system-but Mill's cry for diversity will destroy Marx's world within a second.

Confronted with the above, Marx would reply like he did in the Jewish Question, that the so-called liberty and freedom of the capitalistic world are nothing other than man's desire to keep himself a self-sufficient nomad. As he writes, all the rights of man are simply "the right to enjoy one's fortune and to dispose of it as one will; without regard for other men and independently of society." (Marx, p42) Marx will say that only seeing the superficial political liberation is not to see the deeper human liberation which could only be achieved with the abolition of private property. Marx might not be completely right, but he does stand at a higher ground than Mill in this analysis of property.

Mill in On Liberty is focused solely on avoiding the abuse of power through government, but he ignores the abuses that property owners are capable of against the property-less. In an agricultural society where everyone is equal and land unlimited, the government might be the only thing capable of suppressing individual liberty, but when one sees child-labor and 12 hour work day in modern industrial society, there is no doubt that capital could be a pitiless monster. Even when one ignores the industrial age, and tries to give Mill credit for drawing the best possible life for the pre-industrial man, one still can not avoid noticing the subjugation of the slaves, the suffering of the serfs, and all the other dark stories of the property-less in all the ages previous to the industrial one which Marx gives a full account of.

Marx and Mill were faced with the same modern phenomenal, the danger of been alienated from the defining quality of humanity in the face of a new economic and a new political system. Marx might not have made the best analysis, but he did have a deep understanding of history and the problems in history. He stood at the level of the common people and tried to solve their problems caused by their material desperation. Mill did not stoop to the common people, he looked up into the sky of truth and tried to preserve the march toward truth first embarked on by Plato.

Essential Works Of Marxs & Engels For the Beginner!.......2004-02-25

Given the impact of Marxism on the unfolding history of the later nineteenth and twentieth century, the beginning student of the combined writings of both Marx and Engels will find this collection of the essential works of these two pioneering socialists absolutely essential reading. Its list of included works covers the waterfront of all that is required to gain a fruitful first look at the wealth of their philosophical musings, and the nature of their revolutionary canon, as well. Reading this material is essential if one is to understand the depth of Marx's understanding and the detail of his genius, however discredited he may be in current estimations. Indeed, with the rise of international corporatism is so close to his prognostications regarding the final phases of capitalism that it is hard to deny his continuing relevance.

Included here is everything from the Communist Manifesto all the way to Volume One of Das Capital. One can gain a better appreciation for his ideas regarding the way in which the antagonism between the oppressed and the oppressors provides the motive force for history, and how all history is the history of such class struggles between the owners of the means of production, on the one hand, and the workers, who have nothing to barter with but their considerable capacity to accomplish labor. If one want to gain a better appreciation for the nuances regarding how alienation is created buy the organization of work, or the origin of property, or even the ways in which all of the aspects of a particualr society's culture are manifestations of the values of the ruling class, then a careful reading of the material found here will serve you well. I highly recommend this book. Enjoy!

The best collection we have.......2003-06-07

"The Marx-Engels Reader" is the best single collection of Marx's thought. What makes it doubly important, is that it is one of the few texts which contain an index. This sounds unremarkable, but believe me, it makes the text extremely more useful. This book transcends the state of being a mere anthology, and is an indespensible reference work.

Book Description

This second edition of McLellan's comprehensive selection of Marx's writings includes carefully selected extracts from the whole range of Marx's political, philosophical and economic thought. Each section of the book deals with a different period of Marx's life with the sections arranged in chronological order, thus allowing the reader to trace the development of Marx's thought, from his early years as a student and political journalist in Germany right through to his final letters of the early 1880s. The inclusion of extracts from some of Marx's less well-known works alongside selections from classic texts such as The Communist Manifesto and Capital provides the reader with an unparalleled overview of Marx's thinking, whilst Professor McLellan's fully updated and revised introduction and bibliographical notes accompanying each extract put Marx's writings into biographical and historical context. This edition also includes a general bibliography and a full index of names and ideas as well as a new general introduction for each section of the book by Professor McLellan. As with the first edition, this comprehensive and clearly structured selection of Marx's writings will be essential reading for all those interested in the political thought of this perennially important figure in Western political philosophy.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent collection.......2006-02-02

This is a brilliant collection of some of the very best writings of Karl Marx. A must read for anyone with interest in Marx's early writings (non-Marxist period), letters, essays, his Doctoral thesis, and then later on his political writings forming the `theory of historical materialism', commonly referred to as Marxism. Personally, his `Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts 1844' is really a very nice reading because it renders a very attractive insight into Marx's early intellectual and psychological fight against Hegel's Phenomenology to form the basis of his theory later on. Also included is: Critique of Hegel's works and A Poverty of Philosophy (critique of Proudhon) which are excellent readings. Recommended to everyone; quintessentially to anyone trying to get an insight into one of the greatest intellectual minds of all time.

Subhasish Ghosh

St. Cross College
University of Oxford

Wonderful Anthology Of Marx's Theories and Ideas.......2004-02-27

When one considers the incredible influence that Marxism has had in the unfolding history of the later nineteenth and twentieth century, the beginning student of the combined writings of both Marx and Engels will find this collection of the essential works of these two pioneering socialists absolutely essential reading. Its list of included works covers the waterfront of all that is required to gain a fruitful first look at the wealth of their philosophical musings, and the nature of their revolutionary canon, as well. Reading this material is essential if one is to understand the depth of Marx's understanding and the detail of his genius, however discredited he may be in current estimations. Indeed, with the rise of international corporatism is so close to his prognostications regarding the final phases of capitalism that it is hard to deny his continuing relevance.

A Great Anthology.......2000-09-16

This is the best Marx anthology available. Aside from selections taken from all of Marx's major works, it contains lesser-known selections on a variety of topics. The whole presents a steady stream of selections through Marx's life. Consequently, it gives the length and breadth of Marx's writing without burying you in a life-time of reading. Short explanatory introductions help place the selections in Marx's development and in broader history.

A good follow up is Main Currents of Marxism by Leszek Kolakowski (3 volumes). Unfortunately those books are out of print in America, but they can still be found in good libraries and in the used-book market.

Excellent Selection of Marx's Writings........1999-07-05

This is an excellent selection of the writings of Karl Marx. This includes many writings which do not make it into the usual Marx/Engels Readers; Writings including Marx's Letters, his criticism of Bakunin, more writings on economics than in the usual Reader, and so on. One flaw of it, though, is that it does not contain the later writings of Engels writen after Marx's death. I suppose this is to be expected; It is after all *Marx's* writings, not Engels. However, the loss does not affect it much, and the book is still one of the most valuable tomes of Marxism I've bought. I'd recommend anyone interested in the thought of Karl Marx to get this book; If one is interested in both the writings of Marx and Engels, I'd recommend they get this book and the Marx/Engels Reader to supplement it. I have both, and both are fascinating.

Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescus' Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption

Average customer rating:

An interesting Spy-Story
disappointing
Amazing inside into the Romanian Communism's Backrooms
Riveting read about unimaginable corruption by former Romanian Dictator
An interesting look at Romania's Ceausescu regime

Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescus' Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption
Ion Mihai Pacepa
Manufacturer: Regnery Publishing, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0895267462

Book Description

Despite the ghastly details of Romanian spying and the casually ordered murders, Pacepa's truthtelling has many moments of towering humor.--Kirkus Reviews

Customer Reviews:

An interesting Spy-Story.......2007-08-10

I bought this book in order to know a little more about Ceausescu's time. I found in the pages of this book a lot of allusions to corruption of his wife Elena, the most hated woman in the Romanian History (somebody related during his execution she received more bullets than Nick; his son Nicu a modern Caligula and the rest of hight-ranked politicians and functionaries of Communist Administration.

We found interesting connections between Ceausescu and international terrorism, Gadafi or Arafat even Carlos. And the deals with drug smuggling or selective murders abroad.

You will find in this book how many American or European functionaries had been corrupted by Romanian money during this dark years. Also there are a few interesting portraits of politicians of this years like Willy Brand, Breznev, Santiago Carrillo, Aldo Moro, Evita Perón, Mr and Mrs Carter (Mrs Peanut for Elena).

A good book. Actually, the best i read about Nicolae and Elena, but there's a lack of information about the daily life of Romanian people in this years.

disappointing.......2007-08-07

Superficial and disjointed in many ways. Did give some insights into manchinations of Ceausescus' regime but due to presentation style no certainty as to how factual scenarios are. OK as to superficial look but would not recommend book.

Amazing inside into the Romanian Communism's Backrooms.......2007-01-11

I found Pacepa's recount of those final days spent in Bucharest as the chief of the Romanian DIE, a very useful tool to understand why various things that happened in the 80s made sense. I was impressed to discover that the bizarre law that asked for everyone to register their typing machines with the police had its roots in the anti-Communist letters sent by people to radio Free Europe in Germany. When I was a child in the 1980s in Romania, things like these seemed weird to me and my parents weren't too responsive in trying to help me understand them, for fear that I would talk about it at school. Those times were pretty harsh even for a young child and I believe that as an adult I had a lot to learn from the book.

Riveting read about unimaginable corruption by former Romanian Dictator.......2005-11-12

The Ceausescu "presidency" and "government" is revealed from the ultimate insider point of view, that of his former head of Intelligence, General Pacepa. Pacepa describes with frank methodology Nicolae Ceausescu's, along with his ankle biting wife Elena's, abuse of power. Hidden microphones, dissidents being "taken care of" in ways completely mind boggling, disinformation spread to allow Romania to shine in Western countries, even Jimmy Carter made to look foolish... it's amazing how far Ceausescu's "government" went to enrich it's humble leader. It is extremely fascinating, and shines new light on Yasser Arafat and Mikail Gorbachev, as well as making one question their own government and how perhaps other modern day governments are really run, especially North Korea.

The book did not however, go into very many details about everyday life under Ceausescu. It mentions a few sentences about people waiting in lines, but always from a point of view of the privileged top government officials who are driven around in limousines. What I was most interested in was why or how Ceasescu forced women to have as many children as possible and outlawed abortion. There was a brief explanation that Elena wanted to be the leader of a country that more than doubled it's population under their regime and wanted "Nick" to make it law that women must have a minimum of four children.

When reading this book, one also must question the author. He finally escapes the regime, but under what circumstances did he really live while there? And what criminal acts did he commit, but did not include? I suppose that anyone in that sort of country does what he can do to survive, but being a top aide must've had it's privileges too...

An interesting look at Romania's Ceausescu regime.......2005-01-02

Anyone who spent even a few months in Romania when Ceausescu ran it knows that it was very poorly governed. Some symptoms of this were the long lines, the empty shelves in the food stores, the lack of so many consumer goods, the dollar shops, the Securitate, the eagerness of so many citizens to emigrate (and the difficulty of getting visas), the lack of Western newspapers and magazines and the weakness of currency by Western standards. There were also the searches for contraband items at the borders, such as calculators, Bibles, or coffee. Bribery appeared to be part of the culture. Yes, a few people in the government were relatively well off, but very few others were.

In my opinion, one reason for the situation was the quality of those who ran the nation. Some Romanian communists, including Ceausescu, were Communists even when Romania was allied with Germany in World War Two. Back then, Communists were not exactly public servants: generally, they were misfits. When the Communists were victorious, these misfits wound up running the country, and they did a poor job of it.

In this book, written before Ceausescu was overthrown, Pacepa gives us some evidence (albeit, much of it anecdotal) that the Ceausescu regime was repressive and irresponsible in many respects.

We see Ceausescu giving very detailed advice and support to Arafat, a terrorist leader. We see some of the greed the Ceausescus were notorious for, as they stashed away huge amounts of money and goods. And we see that the Ceausescu government was a special threat to minorities such as Hungarians, Jews, and Germans.

This book was written well over 15 years ago, but I think it needs to be looked at even today, perhaps to remind us how counterproductive governments can be.

Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s

Average customer rating:

Everyday life and the state under Stalin
Must read
Impressed so far
Clear, concise, filled with information
Nothing very much "new".

Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s
Sheila Fitzpatrick
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195050010

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Most popular books about the Stalin era feature the big names and a firm narrative shape: Robert Conquest's The Great Terror; Alan Bullock's Hitler and Stalin. Some books yield their revelations at a glance, like the stunning The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia.

But scholar Sheila Fitzpatrick is famous for letting the common people and the facts speak for themselves, in all their complexity. Her new book on Soviet life in the 1930s--based on research in newly opened archives--does for urbanites what her Heldt Prizewinning Stalin's Peasants did for rural victims. The many witnesses in this fascinating horror story cast doubt on Stalin's notorious 1935 slogan "Life has become better, comrades; life has become more cheerful."

A comment made by a victim of Ivan the Terrible would be more apt: "We Russians don't need to eat; we eat one another and this satisfies us." Famine, caused by bad weather and worse policies, plagued the decade, and life became a chronic struggle to wrest crumbs from an incompetent bureaucracy. Stalin's sly methods of deflecting blame from the state onto allegedly disloyal citizens provoked orgies of denunciation (which could backfire on denouncers). A mad starch factory director forbade comrades to get shaves or haircuts at home--it would have been disloyal to the factory's hairdresser. One kid, Pavlik Morozov, reported his father for grain hoarding in 1937, was murdered by relatives, and became a national hero to kids. Andrei Sakharov's future spouse Elena Bonner was shocked at her 9-year-old brother's response to his father's arrest: "Look what these enemies of the people are like--some of them even pretend to be fathers." The celebrated Moscow Children's Theater put on The Squealer, a drama strikingly like Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront.

Fitzpatrick gives a sense of what it really was like to live under the satanic circus master Stalin: it was beyond Kafka, and it was bloody hard work. --Tim Appelo

Book Description

Here is a pioneering account of everyday life under Stalin, written by a leading authority on modern Russian history. Focusing on the urban population, Fitzpatrick depicts a world of privation, overcrowding, endless lines, and broken homes, in which the regime's promises of future socialist abundance rang hollowly. We read of a government bureaucracy that often turned life into a nightmare, and of how ordinary citizens tried to circumvent it. We also read of the secret police, whose constant surveillance was endemic at this time, and the waves of terror, like the Great Purges of 1937, which periodically cast society into turmoil.

Customer Reviews:

Everyday life and the state under Stalin.......2007-04-06

Sheila Fitzpatrick, specialist in the Stalin period of the USSR, has written a counterpart to her history of peasants and their lives in this era (Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization). Here, in "Everyday Stalinism", she chronicles the urban experience of life under Stalin during the 1930s, with all its paranoia, hardship and oddities.

The book is focused in particular on the relationship of daily life and the state, with relatively little attention for cultural history. However, making much use of the Harvard Project interviews with Soviet citizens from this period, she offers a compelling and fascinating view into the attitude of Soviet citizens towards the state, towards Stalin, and towards each other. Much more than just a tale of survival under threat of secret police, Fitzpatrick shows how people got by in terms of getting consumer goods, getting ahead, and getting even. Of course the Great Purges are given due attention, but what is particularly interesting is that in this book we see those events, as well as the earlier show trials, from the bottom up: not the political history of Stalin eliminating his enemies, but a struggle for power between the Party elites (largely received with disinterest by the general populace), and subsequently a series of rapid repressive maneouvres that descend onto the unsuspecting middle level.

Fitzpatrick pays excellent attention also to social policy and what effect this had on women, social and ethnic minorities, and so on. The USSR as an "affirmative action empire" has been well chronicled: The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939 (Wilder House Series in Politics, History, and Culture). Nevertheless, Fitzpatrick's overview is clear and cogent, and we get also get a good idea of the immense advances in literacy, cultural knowledge and general outlook that were made in roughly the period 1927-1937. Whereas in 1926 only 57% of those aged between 9 and 49 were literate, in 1939 81% of the whole population was literate. Similarly, the entire mass of the population learned basic culture such as appreciating poetry, washing regularly, using soap and towels, not leaving cigarette butts everywhere and not spitting on the floor, etc.

Striking is the amount of critical letters and appeals that people kept sending to Party and Politburo leaders in the (often, but not always vain) hope of redress of grievances or changes in policy. This was already a set tradition dating back to Czarist times, but was maintained during the Revolution and post-Revolutionary period in the form of public debate in leftist papers and letters to Lenin (see Voices of Revolution, 1917). This gives us a good indication however of the public opinion in the Stalinist days, to which Fitzpatrick usefully adds the NKVD reports of overheard conversations and the like. This surprisingly indicates that skepticism towards Stalin himself as well as the general system was reasonably widespread, despite the "cult of the personality".

Overall, this is a well written and interesting history of urban life in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. It must be emphasized though (as this is not directly apparent from the book description) that it only deals with urban life, and only the 1930s. Neither WWII nor the post-War Stalinist period is discussed.

Must read.......2007-02-13

If you have an interest in Stalin and the 1930's, which include the purges, this book is a must for you. For the most part I study the Military and Political history of the early Soviet Union and I had this book on my shelf for years before I finally decided to read it. But once I began I was amazed at myself that I had waited so long to finally dive into this book! The author has really done her research and it shows!

The reader will get a much better and broader understanding of what life was like in the 1930's and how a new state was coming into its own. Why certain groups or 'classes' were being targeted by the state and what happened to them. How some changed their entire lives just to get away from the OGPU and later NKVD. And interestingly enough the policies implemented by the state worked against making it a safer place. As they aggravated one group after another through trials and forced movements they made enemies where in the past there might not have been any. It began to dawn on the government that these people would only seek vengeance once they were freed from punishment and it also created the idea that these people would be enemies for life. This, to a certain extent, explains why during the "Great Purge" which started in 1937 those released from GULag camps or special settlements, etc, were once again picked up and tried and sent to either prison or were executed.

The examples the author draws upon are an excellent representation of the time period and people's thoughts recount what they felt and desired while living through this turbulent, to say the least, decade. The one aspect of the Stalinist period that should be kept in mind, and appears throughout the book, is that no one was really safe in this time. From Communist officials who were being denounced by the hundreds to the regular man on the street who could be denounced because his apartment was bigger than his neighbors, or NKVD officials, one of whom a week before committing suicide visited and drank with the families of people who were denounced and he had to arrest and lastly even to Stalin's inner circle which witnessed the likes of Kaganovich losing his brother and Molotov his wife. A great contribution to the literature on Soviet Union under Stalin!

Impressed so far.......2007-02-11

Clearly it is well researched and (notwithstanding the author's Introduction) cuts through a lot of the politicised waffle that tends to accompany other books dealing with this period. You get an idea of the human and personal dynamics that were operating at the time. In short, the insight gained is sometimes surprising even when you think you know a lot about this period of history, i.e. the October Revolution and socialist construction. Only half way through the book as a matter of fact but you can tell from the outset that what you're reading is a study of substance that genuinely serves to inform the reader. I would say the author is one who is prepared to let facts speak for themselves.

Clear, concise, filled with information.......2006-08-10

This is a good, necessary, and essential book. It is compact and precise. Its aim is to provide massive information about Stalinist Soviet Union in the 1930s. It does so not by the analysis of high politics or the significant political events, but through a depiction of everyday life of urban inhabitants of the Soviet Union during these years.

Fitzpatrick tries to remain neutral, but so many of the disastorous conditions she records were clearly brought on by the Stalin bureaucracy's fear, its fear of workers, its fear of the intellectuals, its fear of those who held positions under Tsarism, its fear of those who had belonged to opposition factions in the Communist party, and fear of itself.

Whether what she provides is "new" is irrelevant except to the academically twisted. What she does is provide the realities of life in the USSR in those years as personally experienced whether in the cold, rancorous, barracks and apartments filled with four or five families of the plebian cities, or the luxurious dachas of the rising bureaucracy.

The strength of this book is its compactness and clarity and its lack of digressions. Fitzpatrick produces a very high amount of understandable information per page.

The one weaknesses of the book is that in order to do this, she tends to assume the reader's knowledge of Soviet history in the late 1920s and early 30s, particularly, "the cultural revolution," though many, especially popular, readers may know little or nothing about this. Perhaps this just invites the reader to explore the work of Fitzpatrick and her colleagues on these questions.

Nothing very much "new". .......2006-06-27

Professor Fitzpatrick has chosen to write a History of Stalin's Soviet Union during the 1930s (that is, at the height of the Great Purges) by focusing on doings at the private life sphere of common Soviet citizens of the time. Problem is, after we have read the book, we realize we've been told about the same old issues: de-kulakization, collectivization, shortages, queues, Yezhov, social mobility through the Party apparatus. The problem being, perhaps, that the whole book was based on a flimsy foundation, that of the opposition between the "private" & the "public" sphere, when actually, in the early Soviet Union, there was no "private" sphere at all, private life merged with public life entirely - something Professor Fitzpatrick acknowledge at the conclusions, but fails to draw the conclusion that the opposition between the private and the public is an historical construction, not an ontology. Therefore the book is informed and readable, but offers nothing that is altogether new.

Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left

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Top Shelf Memoir.
History of the Left in America
A whirlwind tour through the old left.
He Had the Courage To Confront the Lies and Seek the Truth

Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left
Ronald Radosh
Manufacturer: Encounter Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1893554058

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Ronald Radosh, the scholar who is probably most responsible for showing that Julius Rosenberg was indeed a spy for the Soviet Union, offers this honest memoir of growing up a red-diaper baby in New York and, many years later, falling out of favor with his fellow travelers. Born into a family that was both Jewish and Communist, Radosh spent much of his life orbiting these worlds (especially the latter) as an activist for all sorts of left-wing causes. The FBI even began keeping a file on him.

There's a certain amount of score settling on these pages, much of it amusing. What makes Commies fascinating, however, is Radosh's virtual banishment from left-wing politics for publishing The Rosenberg File, a book that definitively showed Julius Rosenberg was not the innocent martyr of liberal mythology but a traitor to his country. Radosh actually started the book believing he could vindicate Rosenberg; through the course of his research, however, he concluded the man was guilty, and set about saying so. This was too much for many of his friends, who soon refused to be seen with him in public. Here is a man who viewed the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 as very possibly a portent of "extreme reaction, if not fascism," suddenly blacklisted by the Left. He became disenchanted with how he had spent his life and "started to question the whole project of the Left." He even suffered professionally: in 1993, Radosh was denied a job in George Washington University's history department. "If I had still been a Communist writing left-wing history, I probably would have breezed in. But faculty members practicing a politically correct version of McCarthyism blackballed me."

Radosh is not a left-winger who has become a right-winger, like David Horowitz, but he is clearly a person who has had second thoughts about what he once believed. America, he writes, is "a country where I was born but didn't fully discover until middle age." Commies is a valuable document describing radicalism in the 1950s and 1960s from the inside. --John J. Miller

Book Description

Commies is a brilliant memoir of growing up in the culture of radicalism. But it also about the hard decisions faced by those professing a radical faith. For Radosh himself, the crisis came when he concluded in his authoritative book on Julius and Ethel Rosenberg that the couple (in whose behalf he had demonstrated as a boy) had indeed been guilty of spying. Attacked as a traitor, Radosh began to question his political commitments. His disillusionment climaxed in the 1980s when he traveled through Central America as a journalist and historian and ran into his old comrades there still searching for the revolution.

Customer Reviews:

I'm Buying It!.......2007-09-13

A critical look at the Left-w/out Horowitz'z hundred plus page self-important therapeutic self-absorptions? There is a God! I'm buying it.

Top Shelf Memoir........2007-07-19

Ron Radosh's political memoir is not as good as David Horowitz's Radical Son but that is about the only bad thing I can say about it. I read this the first time when it came out in 2001 but never wrote a review for it, but, after a second reading, I can now say that it is every bit as good as it was the first time. Radosh is a former leftist who "came back home" to America and the American people. His journey away from the left was one that followed the trajectory of fleeing the image of a fictional utopia in order to reside in the land of reason. His stories are excellent and there is not a lot of unnecessary prose here. This is a book that really flows and I devoured again in only a few hours. I have heard it said that it was a bit of a who's who report which it actually is as there are not too many people who have stumbled across as many celebrities as Ron Radosh. The section on his trip to Cuba was particularly enlightening.

History of the Left in America.......2006-10-29

This book is both an autobiography and a history of Leftist ideology in America. It is a history that Ronald Radosh knows well, having grown up during its origins as a "Red-diaper baby" and subsequently lived most of his life under its influence. The book traces the evolution of the Marxist inspired ideas of an egalitarian utopian movement in the U.S. from the early 1900's, to the present - as seen through the author's eyes and experiences.

Radosh's memoirs read like a Who's Who of leftist thinkers and personalities. It is fascinating to read of his associations with such people as Pete Seegar, Paul Robeson, W.E.B Dubois, William Appleman Williams, Bob Dylan, Robert Scheer, and a host of others. Over the years Radosh has hung out with just about everyone that has been associated with the Left in America, whether as a major or minor figure.

Radosh's break with communist utopian ideology did not occur all at once. It was at times a gradual disillusionment, then at times a more abrupt shock to his senses. For instance in 1956 when Krushchev revealed the crimes of Stalin and in the same year Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary he was deeply disturbed. But he remained true to what he believed was the hope for a better world, and joined the Communist Party U.S.A. as a full-fledged member.

Then came the "New Left" of the 60's. The Old Left ideas were being refurbished by historians such as Williams, who argued that the economy of America was a managerial form of predatory democratic capitalism. There was an invisible totalitarianism that acted through America's corporate and civic structure to mold thought and stifle dissent. The Old Left name "Communism" became "Democratic Socialism" for the New Left.

Radosh went along with this, and was influenced by such New Left luminaries as Michael Harrington, Irving Howe and James Weinstein. Then in the 70's Radosh stayed for over a month in Cuba. This was an eye-opener. He observed first hand that the "workers" labored under unsafe and unhealthy conditions, the psychiatric hospitals were giving lobotomies and homosexuals were jailed. Radosh states: "...the net effect was to make me start rethinking my most fervently held assumptions."

The greatest shock to his Marxist utopian ideals came in the late 70's and early 80's when Radosh was researching for an article he was writing. His intention was to once and for all exculpate Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who had been executed in 1953 for being Soviet spies. New information had been made available from the release of Soviet files and from Kruschev's diaries.

After an extensive study of the old and the new material Radosh came away from his project convinced that the Rosenberg's were not innocent, but guilty. He tried to get this information published in left leaning journals and magazines such as In These Times, The Nation and The New Republic, but was turned away. When he approached Michael Harrington and Irving Howe, the two leading socialist thinkers and writers in America, he was told basically to just let the matter drop and to forget about it. His article eventually grew into a book, "the Rosenberg File: A Search for the Truth" published in 1983.

Not yet completely deconverted Radosh tried to "rekindle his faith" (his words) by getting involved in the civil war in El Salvador to research a possible book. What he found were simple peasants who had their land taken from them by revolutionaries who had postured as their saviors, only to become their masters. When the charismatic "savior" Daniel Ortega was defeated in a democratic election, Radosh wrote: "The Nicaraguan election ended the prospects for revolution in Central America. It also ended my long exile from America."

In his closing chapter Radosh notes how Left ideas have morphed over the years, and that now the Leftover Left is busy with such causes as ultra-environmentalism, pro-Arabism, political correctness, and deconstructionist "Dada". "Today's left has no Soviet Union as a beacon, but its reflexive hatred of the American system is still intact." Radosh states that in 1990 he ended his own long exile from America. He looks back at his old "comrades" and is certain that some of them still live in their illusions and dream secretly of a revolution. As Arthur Koestler defined them, they are "clinging to the last shred of the torn illusion " with the "typical intellectual cowardice that prevails on the left."

A whirlwind tour through the old left........2005-07-14

Radosh was a red-diaper baby who seems to have met everyone of importance in the old left. Pete Seeger sang for his summer camp. Mary Travers was the class slut.

He also brushed against every political and social fad of the left as well. His first wife, deep into feminist retoric, cheats on him. Remember "smash monogamy"? Shrinks who shared LSD with their patients, communes, Lyndon LaRouche, and visits to Cuba, it's all here.

One very telling detail is a chat he has with Tom Hayden. It's 1989, communism has fallen, and Tom and his wife, Jane Fonda, have just visited Prague to "start building a new left".

Radosh, who by this time has drifted far from his red-diaper early beliefs, has to force himself not to ask Tom if he's out of his mind.

He Had the Courage To Confront the Lies and Seek the Truth.......2005-01-28

Ron Radosh was born and bred a "Red Diaper" baby.

Among his earliest heroes was his uncle, Irving Kreichman, whom the Jew-baiting Stalinst Communist Party of the United States had change his name to Irving Keith. Keith, or Kreichman, a "true believer" went off to Spain in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, and was killed believing he died for the freedom of the Spanish Republic and fighting Hitler. Unfortunately for Keith, it was another Fascist like Schicklgruber, the pockmarked Georgian thug named Koba aka Stalin who sent just enough arms to ensure that the Spanish Republic died a lingering death just in time for him to break bread with Herr Hitler.

Despite this, Radosh was weaning on the Party tenets and dogma. His music teacher at the Communist Camp he attended was none other than Pete Seeger. And Bobby Zimmerman, aka Dylan, was another pupil there - Dylan would flirt with the Left but never join the Communists. The clown below who claimed that Radosh was never in the SDS - namely B. Apetheker was too busy swallowing CP dogma courtesy of "her" daddy to realize that Radosh was just as much a major part of the Left as this pathetic so-called "woman" ever was.

Radosh, unlike Bettina had the courage and moral integrity to take in the truth even after it had hit him squarely in the eyes. His epiphany came long after Soviet tanks blasted away the dreams of freedom for the Hungarian people, or even after Brezhnev pissed on the "Prague Spring". It came, ironically, while Radosh was researching the lives and misdeeds of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, hoping to clear their names but discovering instead that they were indeed Soviet spies and traitors who helped give Stalin the bomb.

Even after exposing the lies of deceit of the Rosenbergs, Radosh still remained steadfast to his own beliefs, even denouncing the election of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States in 1980. Then he went to Nicaragua to celebrate the Sandinista revolution and came back exposing the corruption and totalitarian nature of the Sandinista regime and its thug leadership. He paints a humourous picture of the former Mrs. Mick Jagger as a pathetic bimbo, ever willing to strip off her clothes in a hurry to be the sexual playtoy of one of the worst thugs and torturers of that regime, Tomas Borge. It was in Nicaragua, amidst the freedom fighters of the Contras - that Radosh finally had the guts to acknowledge the fraud that he had supported for most of his life.

Ron Radosh learned a lot and is still learning. Quite unlike the "daughter" of one of Stalin's worst apologist who was also a self-loather. Irving Keith was a hero - a sadly misguided one as things turned out. The same cannot be said for H. Apetheker.

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One of the best!

Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays
Louis Althusser
Manufacturer: Monthly Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1583670394
Release Date: 2001-11-13

Book Description

No figure among the western Marxist theoreticians has loomed larger in the postwar period than Louis Althusser. A rebel against the Catholic tradition in which he was raised, Althusser studied philosophy and later joined both the faculty of the Ecole normal superieure and the French Communist Party in 1948. Viewed as a "structuralist Marxist," Althusser was as much admired for his independence of intellect as he was for his rigorous defense of Marx. The latter was best illustrated in For Marx (1965), and Reading Capital (1968). These works, along with Lenin and Philosophy (1971) had an enormous influence on the New Left of the 1960s and continues to influence modern Marxist scholarship.

This classic work, which to date has sold more than 30,000 copies, covers the range of Louis Althusser's interests and contributions in philosophy, economics, psychology, aesthetics, and political science.

Marx, in Althusser's view, was subject in his earlier writings to the ruling ideology of his day. Thus for Althusser, the interpretation of Marx involves a repudiation of all efforts to draw from Marx's early writings a view of Marx as a "humanist" and "historicist."

Lenin and Philosophy also contains Althusser's essay on Lenin's study of Hegel; a major essay on the state, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses," "Freud and Lacan: A letter on Art in Reply to André Daspre," and "Cremonini, Painter of the Abstract." The book opens with a 1968 interview in which Althusser discusses his personal, political, and intellectual history.

Customer Reviews:

One of the best!.......2002-04-30

This is an excellent text if you are interested in having your reality turned on its head. I have used this reference in almost every paper I have written since beginning my path down the winding road of critical theory. I recommend it to anyone who thinks about why we think the way we do, anyone interested in hegemony, and anyone who thinks something is wrong with our world but s/he feels s/he just can't put a finger on what it is. This is a foundational text for anyone studying literary theory or philosophy. It contains the famous I.S.A. essay, a must read for anyone who functions metacognitively!

Main Currents of Marxism: The Founders, The Golden Age, The Breakdown

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A Monumental work
Read it and weep!
A High Point of Intellectual History

Main Currents of Marxism: The Founders, The Golden Age, The Breakdown
Leszek Kolakowski , and P. S. Falla
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Modernity on Endless Trial
Religion: If There Is No God-- : On God, the Devil, Sin, and Other Worries of the So-Called Philosophy of Religion
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Postwar : A History of Europe Since 1945

ASIN: 0393060543

Book Description

The commanding study of Marxism, now in one masterful volume with a new preface and epilogue by the author.

From philosopher Leszek Kolakowski, one of the giants of twentieth-century intellectual history, comes this highly influential study of Marxism. Written in exile, this "prophetic work" presents, according to the Library of Congress, "the most lucid and comprehensive history of the origins, structure, and posthumous development of the system of thought that had the greatest impact on the twentieth century." Kolakowski traces the intellectual foundations of Marxist thought from Plotonius through Lenin, Lukacs, Sartre, and Mao. He reveals Marxism to be "the greatest fantasy of our century...an idea that began in Promethean humanism and culminated in the monstrous tyranny of Stalinism." In a brilliant coda, he examines the collapse of international Communism in light of the last tumultuous decades. Main Currents of Marxism remains the indispensable book in its field.

Customer Reviews:

A Monumental work.......2007-02-21

This compilation is a monumental work of research, an ecnyclopedic description of Marxist thought from the beggining to the 1970s. It begins before Marx, going back to ancient Greece and early Christianity in exmaining the dialectic that led to Hegel and thence to Marx. The first book is devoted to this discussion and Marx. The second and third volume examines other thinkers such as Bakunin, Gramsci and Lukacs. This is truly a masterwork, one to wade through at your own pace. Great excerpts highlight Proudhoun, Stalinism and Leninism and even Maoism.

A fascinating book of great depth and understanding, hefty.

Seth J. Frantzman

Read it and weep!.......2007-01-12

This one-volume edition of Kolakowski's three-volume demolition of Marxism is superb. As a friend once remarked, "More than this, one cannot do."

There are still Marxists and pseudo-Marxists among us, but one doubts that they have the candlepower or integrity to sit down and read through this masterpiece.

A High Point of Intellectual History.......2006-12-11

This is an outstanding description and analysis of the history of Marxism as a philosophic enterprise and doctrine. Kolakowski's goal is a fair and lucid history of Marxism as an intellectual enterprise. This is a highly ambitious undertaking requiring familiarity with a huge range of writers and thinkers, ranging from famous figures like Marx and Hegel to obscure 19th and 20th century ideologues. Kolakowski also appears to be remarkably well versed in the secondary literature on Marxism as well. The breadth and depth of scholarship is remarkable and is matched by Kolakowski's lucid exposition. Considerably credit has to be given to the translator, PS Falla, for the fluent English. Main Currents is divided into 3 volumes, the first covering the origins of Marxism and Marx himself, the second devoted to the apogee of Marxist thought, and the last to history of Marxism since the Russian revolution.
Kolokowski begins in an apparently surprising place; the Neoplatonism of the Classical world. He points out that some of of the themes implicit in Marx have very deep roots. The ideas of man alienating aspects of his essence and then being restored to completion in a dramatic and catastrophic event are ancient. Kolakowski traces these ideas and the accompanying aspects of eschatology and soteriology through major philosophers and theologians of both the Classical and Medieval period into the end of the 18th century. He then moves to a brilliant description of the Hegelian - Idealist tradition that forms the immediate background of Marx's work. Kolakowski's analysis of Marx's wholesale modification of Hegel's concepts and his synthesis of Hegelian thought with the Romantic ideals of early 19th century socialism and economic ideas is simply the best description of this difficult subject I have ever encountered. He then moves through a careful chronological reconstruction of Marx's thought, emphasizing the continuity from Marx's earliest substantial work to the last completed parts of Capital. Kolakowski particularly highlights the key role of the concept of alienation in Marx's thought. The description of Marx is lucid and evenhanded. Kolakowski is very respectful of Marx's brilliance as a thinker and provides outstanding discussions of difficult concepts like Marx's concept of surplus value and his concept of history. Kolakowski's exposition gives a very strong sense of why Marx's system was so attractive to generations of intellectuals. This is not to suggest that Kolakowski is uncritical. Quite the opposite. Kolakowski's critique of key issues in Marx such as the concept of surplus value or the claims of historical materialism are ruthlessly effective.
The second volume covers the period from death of Engels to the Bolshevik Revolution. This is also approximately the period of the Second International. Kolakowski describes this as the "Golden Age" of Marxist thought, a period characterized by a diversity of Marxist thinkers and continued interaction of Marxists with other intellectual traditions. This volume has all the virtues of Vol. 1., exhibiting Kolakowski's remarkable command of Marxist and general philosophical history, his solid knowledge of European history, a fluid writing style, and his incisive judgement about the subjects under discussion. In the the first half of this volume, Kolakowski shows the interesting diversity of the Marxist tradition during this period. This includes both a variety of interpretations of Marx and also the interaction of Marxism with other philosophical traditions, such as the Kantian revival of the late 19th century. Kolakowski covers some figures not thought of usually as part of the Marxist mainstream, such as Sorel and Jean Jaures, as well as illuminating discussions of the Revisionist and Austro-Marxist movements.
The second half of this volume is devoted to the pregnant subject of Russian Marxism. Kolakowski provides a very nice overview of the relevant Russian intellectual history leading up to a detailed discussion of various Russian Marxists. This concludes with an intensive examination of the work and career of Lenin, who is presented as a mediocre thinker but essentially as a successful leader of the cult that founded the Soviet state.
The third volume covers the decline of Marxism as a viable intellectual enterprise. Kolakowski presents the decline as occurring in two different ways. The first and most important is the development of Marxism in its Leninist-Stalinist form in which certain aspects of Marxism were emphasized by Lenin to develop the ideology that came to underpin the Soviet State and its Eastern European conquests. Kolakowski argues convincingly that the resulting ideology was not a "deformation" or distortion of Marx but rather a logical though far from inevitable interpretation of Marx's doctrines. With the articulation of the Soviet state and the cult of Stalin, this process involved the impoverishment of Marxist thinking, disconnection from other philosophical traditions, and ultimate evolution into a sterile ideology used solely to justify totalitarianism. Providing an accurate historical analysis of this phenomenon required Kolakowski to read not only figures of real importance like Lenin and Stalin but also the painful but necessary task of thoroughly reading a number of minor Stalinist ideologues.
The second aspect of the Breakdown is Kolakowski's analysis of post-Stalinist Marxism including such varied figures as Gramsci, the School of Frankfort, and others. By and large, this is a depiction of an essentially decadent intellectual tradition though Kolakowski writes relatively sympathetically of figures for whom he has some respect such as Habermas and Gramsci. Kolakowski has a very evenhanded writing style but his treatment of some of these individuals is harshly critical without using hyperbolic language. His chapter on Marcuse is a textbook example of intellectual demolition without name calling. One of the most interesting treatments in the book is that of Gyorgy Lukacs. Kolakowski presents Lukacs as someone melding both aspects of the breakdown. Kolakowski clearly respects Lukacs as man of considerable intellect. Lukacs' judgements on Marx, notably his analysis of the role of Marx's Hegelianism, his emphasis on alienation, the need to interpret history as a teleological process, and others, mirror Kolakowski's own analysis and may well have influenced the younger Kolakowski. Kolakowski also demonstrates as well that the essential thrust of Lukacs' work was to provide a sophisticated defense of Stalinism, a morally and intellectually bankrupt undertaking.
Marxism as a vital intellectual tradition is probably, as Kolakowski argues, at a dead end. Still, achieving an understanding of the history of the last century is impossible without understanding the history and role of Marxism. The superb book is an invaluable resource in any effort to understand the events of the last century.

Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police

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Very informative book
"Scent samples......"
A fun read - great research and great stories
an amazing propaganda piece
The Definitive History of the Stasi

Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police
John O. Koehler
Manufacturer: Westview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Man Without A Face
The File: A Personal History
After The Wall: Confessions from an East German Childhood and the Life that Came Next
Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall
Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War

ASIN: 0813337445

Amazon.com

As human rights activist Rainer Hildebrandt observed in 1948, communist East Germany resembled nothing so much as a vast "concentration camp in which only the warders and those who hand out the food can still live well." Those warders were known collectively as the Ministerium für Statessicherheit, or Stasi. As John Koehler suggests in the impressively detailed Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police, their history is the history of totalitarian East Germany. Including informants, the Stasi at one point would number one operative for every 66 East German citizens; so ruthless and efficient were they in their efforts to squelch dissent that even the KGB found itself occasionally appalled by the Stasi's methods.

Right up to its 1990 demise, the Stasi cast a huge net of spies and agents around Europe and the rest of the world, enlisting as many as 30,000 West Germans as secret operatives, and involving more than a few American intelligence personnel in traitorous dalliances that would badly damage NATO defense capabilities during the Cold War. Koehler, a longtime foreign correspondent with Associated Press and onetime aide to president Ronald Reagan, based much of his research on the vast archive of secret Stasi documents discovered after the fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent unification of Germany. Although this book is only the tip of the iceberg, he has provided a fascinating look into the inner workings of one of the most dangerous, but least known, organizations of the 20th century. --Tjames Madison

(After the collapse of the Berlin Wall and unification of Germany, journalist Timothy Garton Ash gained access to his Stasi file and began interviewing the people who contributed to it. The results of his investigation are found in the compelling The File.)

Book Description

The definitive history of the powerful and brutal East German Secret Police

In this gripping narrative, John Koehler details the covert activities of East Germany's Ministry for State Security, or "Stasi." The Stasi, which infiltrated every walk of East German life, suppressed political opposition, and caused the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of citizens, proved to be one of the most powerful secret police and espionage services in the world. Koehler methodically reviews the Stasi's activities within East Germany and overseas, including its programs for internal repression, international espionage, terrorism and terrorist training, art theft, and special operations in Latin America and Africa.

Customer Reviews:

Very informative book.......2007-09-28

I chose to read "The Stazi" in preparation for viewing "The Lives of Others". The book gave me the background necessary to understand what went on during that period in East Germany and provided insight into the motivations of the people on both sides of the Berlin Wall.

Koehler, who was a journalist during the time these events took place, did a commendable job researching what he did not actually experience himself. Lots of statistics and documentation made reading slow at first but the details he provides relative to how spies on both sides are recruited and what they went through and how they did their job made for fascinating reading.

I was amazed at the stupidity of the various organizations, including the US military, in not doing a better job of protecting classified documents. In that regard the book was a real eye opener.

"Scent samples......".......2007-09-24

I bought this book after watching "The Lives of Others" (a movie to definitely see) and wanted to learn more about East Germany. I've read more about Stalin, the KGB, and the Soviet Union and have seen/heard less about the Stasi and East Germany under communist rule, so this book fills an important gap (at least in my knowledge).

Koehler chronicles the frighteningly extensive reach of the Stasi both domestically and in its recruitment efforts in other countries. The book is replete with stories of spies, moles, double agents, and informants who worked for the Stasi based on principles, fear for family members, or just money, all of which illustrate the far-reaching Stasi and its network. In one particularly scary example, Koehler writes that East Germans were perplexed after reunification when they found jars containing pieces of cloth at Stasi headquarters. Based on records discovered, the jars contained "scent samples" collected from dissidents during interrogation. The samples served for later use for dogs to track down dissidents if necessary.

Toward the end of the book, Koehler discusses East Germany's role in supporting, harboring, and allowing terrorists to reside/pass through East Germany - a section with relevance to today's questions related to nations that harbor and support terrorism.

A book to definitely add to your Cold War history collection.

A fun read - great research and great stories.......2006-03-21

I found Koehler's book to be outstanding. It was well written and nicely researched.

an amazing propaganda piece.......2005-09-06

Get a fresh highlighter when you read this book, and you will have a wonderful lesson in how to write a propaganda piece. This book does a real smear job on the DDR; Not that the DDR was such a wonderful place to begin with, but the author will not give you the opportunity to form your own opinion. Rather, he will "help" you reach "the right conclusion" through linguistic and numeric acrobatics. This would have been understandable had the author been a CIA agent, but is totally unforgiveable from a journalist. There isn't a semblance of objectivity in this entire book. Here are some examples I found most annoying:

- The author uses some simple math to impress the reader as to just how totalitarian was the DDR. While his conclusion is almost self-evident, the route to that conclusion is misleading and incorrect. He begins by making a claim that there was one Stasi police officer per 166 East Germans. He gets this figure by dividing the total population of the DDR (17,000,000) by the total number of Stasi personnel (102,000). This calculation is nonsense, because organisationally, the Stasi is the equivalent of both the FBI and the CIA, i.e., both an internal and external intelligence aparatus. So the author is incorrectly counting people who were in charge of overseas intelligence. This calculation is nonsense also because this number 102,000 includes everybody, including the custodians, the people working at the cafeteria, the janitors, etc. This number is simply taken out of context.

However, these numbers are meaningless for another reason, that is far more important: Unlike other security agencies, the Stasi was not in the least bit computerised. Therefore the Stasi needed many more people, relatively speaking, to handle the intelligence at all levels: From the simplest clerical workers doing filing, typing and archival work, through agents, informants, case officers, etc. Everything was done manually. How do you even begin to compare the quantities of information that, for example, the technologically-savvy FBI or NSA could gather on US citizens, to the low-tech paper documents in cardboard folders that the Stasi used: All filed manually, all looked up manually. Just imagine two librarians, one having a computerised catalog and the other using 3x5 library cards in the traditional library card files...

The bottom line: The FBI, CIA, NSA gathered more information, could store and retrieve this information faster and more reliably, could index and cross-index information, more meaningfully, and could analyse this information to find patterns and trends, faster and better than anything anyone at the Stasi could have dreamed of, regardless of how many people worked for it. If anything, it's amazing that the Stasi was as effective as it was without resorting to computers (and without serious sigint).

- Finally, try this one: As you read through the book, highlight the pejoratives applied to the Stasi and the DDR and compare them to the expressions used to describe the BRD, the US, etc. It's just amazing: Americans spying for the DDR are refered to as "renegade" and "traitors", while East Germans spying for the US are called "defectors", even though they may have begun to collect information on their country two years before defecting, and then gave this information to their country's enemy, in return for citizenship and some money. Similarly, the Stasi is refered to as an "Octopus" with menacing tentacles... East German officials at a reception are referred to as "apartchiks" who are "stuffing themselves and guzzling vodka". I'm not sure that the author would describe US officials at a reception at a US function using similar disparaging terms.

I think that a reporter needs to respect the subjects of his reports. The author of this book, John Koehler, certainly shows nothing but contempt for his subjects. Had he been some CIA hotshot -- this could have been understandable. For a reporter, however, this is unforgiveable.

The Definitive History of the Stasi .......2005-02-07

John Koehler has done more than create the most exhaustive and detailed account of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Stasi) in the English language. He has done the world a service. Koehler has brought to light the plight of the victims of one of the world's most chillingly efficient spy agencies, whose stories deserve to be told. Read about Horst Erdmann, a medical student who was arrested for passing out leaflets calling for free elections. Erdmann was sentenced to eleven years of hard labor under abominable conditions. Read about Rüdiger Knechtel, imprisoned for throwing a bottle over the Berlin Wall, which contained a message explaining his plight. Read about the torture suffered by Josef Kneifel. Read and learn what the East German prisons were like. How many were killed, imprisoned, and tortured, simply for wanting to leave the German "Democratic Republic"?

But the story starts much earlier, before World War II, with the man who ultimately was to become the head of the Stasi for nearly 40 years, Erich Mielke. Koehler gives you Mielke's background, which included killing two (Weimar Republic-era) policemen and his subsequent escape to Russia, where he learned espionage. Mielke's own biography provides insight into the Stasi. Mielke always viewed the Stasi as akin to Felix Dzerzhinski's "Chekists," who ruthlessly defended the communist revolution in the USSR by persecuting its dissenters. Under Mielke's view, communist revolutions would always be opposed by "counterrevolutionary" forces - which sadly included anyone who wanted to speak his mind, vote, or even simply leave - and every communist country required a secret police force to battle those elements. As such, the Stasi (whose officers and informants were something like 1 out of every 66 GDR citizens) was necessary and integral to the functioning of the GDR.

Koehler reports on all aspects of the Stasi, from the agency's formation to its demise. Koehler describes the Stasi's strong ties to the KGB, and its thorough spying on East German citizens. We read about the Stasi's foreign operations, too. While West Germany was the Stasi's main area of operations, it spied on NATO and the United States as well. It forged ties with Third World countries and used them as bases of operations. Koehler explains at length the Stasi's connection to international terrorists and the West German Red Army Faction (aka the "Bader Meinhof gang"), activities which disgusted many of the Stasi's own agents. Koehler explains that the money spent on the Stasi and its activities almost certainly accelerated the bankruptcy of the GDR.

This is a dense, thoroughly researched book. As one reviewer noted, it does contain typos. However, I cannot in good conscience deduct any stars for the typographical errors, because this is truly a fine, meticulously documented book. One gets the sense that the author was driven to tell the whole story of this organization in all its aspects. He has succeeded. This comprehensive book is well worth reading.

Marx: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions X)

Average customer rating:

Publisher Notes:
not bad, but not good
An easy to follow introduction
A Little TOO Short
An almost ideal introduction to the subject.

Marx: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions X)
Peter Singer
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192854054

Book Description

Peter Singer identifies the central vision that unifies Marx's thought, enabling us to grasp Marx's views as a whole. He sees him as a philosopher primarily concerned with human freedom, rather than as an economist or a social scientist. He explains alienation, historical materialism, the economic theory of Capital, and Marx's ideas of communism, in plain English, and concludes with an assessment of Marx's legacy.

Customer Reviews:

Publisher Notes:.......2006-10-10

The Past Masters Series is a concise, lucid , aythoritative introduction to the thought of leading intellectual figures of the past whose ideas still influence the way we think today. ... sees Marx as a philosopher, rather than as an economist or social scientis. ' an admirably balanced portrait of the man and his achievement' says Philip Toynbee, Observer.

not bad, but not good.......2006-02-10

Very little of the text is devoted to analyzing Marx's most important work. For example, a total of one chapter (~30 pages) is devoted to Das Kapital, Marx's seminal work.

On the other hand, excessive attention is paid to unimportant aspects of Marx. For example, most of the book is spent analyzing Marx's philosophical background, his obscure earlier works, his philosophical predecessors (Hegel & Feuerbach), and the effects of his doctrines. The chapter devoted to Singer's mediocre economic analysis is as long as the chapter devoted to Das Kapital!

Although the book has some good material, that good material constitutes only ~30 pages.

An easy to follow introduction.......2005-04-13

I am doing an MA in political science and my professor screwed his nose up a bit when I showed him this, because Singer is not a name that one associates with Marxism. I bought it because I liked his anthology on Ethics so much. I must say that I don't agree with some of the conclusions that Singer draws in his assessment of Marxism at the end of the book, but his strength is his ability to write at a level that is easy to understand. He avoids jargon where possible and that in itself takes a lot of the mystery out of this stuff. I recommend this book as a good place to start when looking at Marx.

A Little TOO Short.......2005-02-28

I felt the later chapters of this book were well developed, but the first few chapters on how Marx developed his philosophy from Hegel's left me with more questions than answers. Overall, the book provides are decent foundation on which to critique Marx as a philosopher, social scientist, economist, etc. Singer brings up many common objections to Marxist thought, but he also presents Marx's ideas in a non-bias way and gives credit where he sees credit is due. I found the biography of Marx to be interesting along with the subtleties of his relationship with Engels. But in the end, I wish this book had been a little more detailed, especially with regards to Marx's early works and philosophy.

An almost ideal introduction to the subject........2003-08-22

Peter Singer's "Marx: A Very Short Introduction" is a superbly lucid and concise introduction to the subject of Marx and Marxism. Assuming the reader has no background in Marx's thought, Singer covers most of the important issues of Marxism and then assesses Marx's achievements and shortcomings in a refreshingly balanced manner.

What makes this book such a valuable introduction is Singer's clear understanding of what lies at the heart of Marxism: the issue of human freedom. Too many works on Marxism reduce it to a merely economic philosophy, which has the destruction of capitalism (and subsequent liberation of the world's workers) as its end. This is a gross misrepresentation of Marx's thought. Marx saw the destruction of capitalism and the establishment of a classless society as means toward the true end which he sought: the liberation of humanity from oppression and exploitation and a return to our true nature as creative, self-actualizing beings rather than mere laboring appendages to an economic machine. Marx envisioned a world in which humanity toiled with its individual and universal fulfillment as the goal, rather than a world in which a few grow rich while the many dig ditches or work in Asian sweatshops for Nike. Freedom, true freedom, was the purpose behind Marx's work and also his life.

I highly recommend this book as a serious, thorough, and fair introduction to this complex subject. Apart from Terry Eagleton's "Marx," there is no better guide than this.

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