A subtle, nuanced, but gripping study of the most pervasive and
destructive illusion of the 20th century, that of the virtues of
communism. This book by the late Furet, a member of the Academie
Francaise, and scholar of the French Revolution, and himself a
former Communist, has already been translated into more than a
dozen languages. In it he tries to grapple with the paradox of the
wide admiration for a regime like that of the Soviet Union,
manifestly unfree, economically unsuccessful, and unprecedentedly
brutal toward its people. He finds the basis for its appeal in its
seeming promise of human equality but even more in the
disillusionment created by the First World War, from which National
Socialism also received its impetus. Indeed, he finds that
communism and Nazism fed off each other and even suggests that
Stalin, who admired Hitler's ruthlessness, learnt a lesson from the
"Night of the Long Knives," during which Hitler purged the
stormtroopers. Most of all, communism benefited from being seen as
the sole anticapitalist, antifascist force. Its universality can be
understood by its appeal even to the reformist British
intelligentsia. Most surprising of all was the bland indifference
of Western intellectuals to the monstrous cruelty of the terror. It
was only when the terror had largely subsided, and when the
Pastemaks and the Solzhenitsyns were merely being gagged and
harassed rather than executed, that intellectuals protested. The
end came, in Furet's view, when Khrushchev denounced Stalin's
crimes, which brought into question the two wellsprings of the
Soviet regime: ideology and terror. Most ironic of all, Furet
suggests, is the paucity of interest shown by European
intellectuals in the virtues of the American system of government.
Furet devotes himself almost entirely to Europe, and the book, for
all its vitality, is not easy reading. But there are few books that
deal so well or with such subtlety with the opiate of the closing
century's intellectuals. (Kirkus Reviews)
A study of Communism and a history of the myth of Communism as
perpetuated by its admirers. Francois Furet illuminates how the
support for Communism and its embodiment, the Soviet Union, became
virtually synonymous with "anti-Fascism" and how this strategic
arrangement reverberated through the West. During the first half of
the 20th century, to be against the Soviet Union (and its
Communism), argues Furet, was tantamount to betraying the fight
against Fascism, despite the fact that both Fascism and Communism
ultimately spring from the same nationalist impulse. Thus the
struggle against Fascism resulted in the sanitizing or
glorification of Communism. This whitewashing of the Soviet
regime's excesses not only kept alive the myth and attractiveness
of the Communist promise but had complex moral, intellectual, and
political ramifications for the West. This book is a history of the
ideological passions that have fueled and characterized the modern
era. It serves as an effort to revise the understanding of the 20th
century at the "fin de siecle".
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
