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In this collection, world-renowned scholars of Bolshevism and world
communism analyze the human costs of the Bolshevik Revolution, its
contribution to the spread of totalitarianism, and the responses it
inspired among American and Western intellectuals. Together, their
essays constitute a profound refusal of the poesy of
totalitarianism that is based on sober research and detailed
analysis of the limits of utopian politics and the dangers of cruel
ideologies based in the cosmetic aesthetic of moral perfectionism
and lyric intoxication. This study provides an accurate and
succinct depiction of the nature of Bolshevism and its consequences
in light of several decades of research, including former Soviet
archival materials and American intelligence such as the Venona
files.
What ails people at the present time in Western and especially
American society is an inexhaustible subject. Discussion of these
discontents in the United States in the last decade of the
twentieth century leads to an obvious question: How much and what
kind of discontents are possible in a society that has experienced
over a decade of economic growth, close to full employment, hardly
any inflation, falling crime rates, declining teenage pregnancies,
and other good things? Is there anything to worry about in a
country that has become the undisputed superpower of the world and
no longer faces another hostile superpower such as the Soviet Union
used to be? Paul Hollander wrestles with these and other questions
in seeking to understand conditions and developments within
American culture and society in the context of their relationship
to political systems, movements and ideas critical of the United
States and Western values. Hollander examines disparate phenomena,
such as the O.J. Simpson case, the banning of West Side Story in
Amherst, Massachusetts, the popularity and exposu of Rigoberta
Menchu, and the appeal of sports utility vehicles, which shed light
on the major themes of the volume. Topics include conflicts among
American intellectuals (including disputes over the Kosovo
intervention), the impact of postmodernism on higher education, the
persisting appeal of victimhood in American society, the flaws of
American sociology, academic specialists' failure to anticipate the
collapse of the Soviet Union, and the new anti-Americanism in
postcommunist societies. Among topics of historical interest are a
survey of Western judgments and misjudgments of the communist
systems; examination of the relative neglect of political violence
in communist states, and analysis of officially enforced,
secular-religious cult of communist rulers. Many of these writings
are linked to the author's longstanding interest in why people
accept or reject particular political systems and in the
contradictory human needs and desires which condition and limit the
pursuit of social and political ends. Sociologists, political
scientists, and the general reader will find this book of great
interest.
Why did so many distinguished Western Intellectuals--from G.B.
Shaw to J.P. Sartre, and. closer to home, from Edmund Wilson to
Susan Sontag-- admire various communist systems, often in their
most repressive historical phases? How could Stalin's Soviet Union,
Mao's China, or Castro's Cuba appear at one time as both successful
modernizing societies and the fulfillments of the boldest dreams of
social justice? Why, at the same time, had these intellectuals so
mercilessly judged and rejected their own Western, liberal
cultures? What Impulses and beliefs prompted them to seek the
realization of their ideals in distant, poorly known lands? How do
their journeys fit into long-standing Western traditions of looking
for new meaning In the non-Western world?
These are some of the questions Paul Hollander sought to answer
In his massive study that covers much of our century. His success
is attested by the fact that the phrase "political pilgrim" has
become a part of intellectual discourse. Even in the post-communist
era the questions raised by this book remain relevant as many
Western, and especially American intellectuals seek to come to
terms with a world which offers few models of secular fulfillment
and has tarnished the reputation of political Utopias. His new and
lengthy introduction updates the pilgrimages and examines current
attempts to find substitutes for the emotional and political energy
that used to be invested in them.
Why did so many distinguished Western Intellectuals from G.B. Shaw
to J.P. Sartre, and. closer to home, from Edmund Wilson to Susan
Sontag admire various communist systems, often in their most
repressive historical phases? How could Stalin's Soviet Union,
Mao's China, or Castro's Cuba appear at one time as both successful
modernizing societies and the fulfillments of the boldest dreams of
social justice? Why, at the same time, had these intellectuals so
mercilessly judged and rejected their own Western, liberal
cultures? What Impulses and beliefs prompted them to seek the
realization of their ideals in distant, poorly known lands? How do
their journeys fit into long-standing Western traditions of looking
for new meaning In the non-Western world? These are some of the
questions Paul Hollander sought to answer In his massive study that
covers much of our century. His success is attested by the fact
that the phrase "political pilgrim" has become a part of
intellectual discourse. Even in the post-communist era the
questions raised by this book remain relevant as many Western, and
especially American intellectuals seek to come to terms with a
world which offers few models of secular fulfillment and has
tarnished the reputation of political Utopias. His new and lengthy
introduction updates the pilgrimages and examines current attempts
to find substitutes for the emotional and political energy that
used to be invested in them.
During the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, political
dictators were not only popular in their own countries, but were
also admired by numerous highly educated and idealistic Western
intellectuals. The objects of this political hero-worship included
Benito Mussolini, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel
Castro and more recently Hugo Chavez, among others. This book seeks
to understand the sources of these misjudgements and
misperceptions, the specific appeals of particular dictators, and
the part played by their charisma, or pseudo-charisma. It sheds new
light not only on the political disposition of numerous Western
intellectuals - such as Martin Heidegger, Eric Hobsbawm, Norman
Mailer, Ezra Pound, Susan Sontag and George Bernard Shaw - but also
on the personality of those political leaders who encouraged, and
in some instances helped to design, the cult surrounding their rise
to dictatorship.
During the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, political
dictators were not only popular in their own countries, but were
also admired by numerous highly educated and idealistic Western
intellectuals. The objects of this political hero-worship included
Benito Mussolini, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel
Castro and more recently Hugo Chavez, among others. This book seeks
to understand the sources of these misjudgements and
misperceptions, the specific appeals of particular dictators, and
the part played by their charisma, or pseudo-charisma. It sheds new
light not only on the political disposition of numerous Western
intellectuals - such as Martin Heidegger, Eric Hobsbawm, Norman
Mailer, Ezra Pound, Susan Sontag and George Bernard Shaw - but also
on the personality of those political leaders who encouraged, and
in some instances helped to design, the cult surrounding their rise
to dictatorship.
In this collection, world-renowned scholars of Bolshevism and world
communism analyze the human costs of the Bolshevik Revolution, its
contribution to the spread of totalitarianism, and the responses it
inspired among American and Western intellectuals. Together, their
essays constitute a profound refusal of the poesy of
totalitarianism that is based on sober research and detailed
analysis of the limits of utopian politics and the dangers of cruel
ideologies based in the cosmetic aesthetic of moral perfectionism
and lyric intoxication. This study provides an accurate and
succinct depiction of the nature of Bolshevism and its consequences
in light of several decades of research, including former Soviet
archival materials and American intelligence such as the Venona
files.
Although it has been a global phenomenon for decades before recent
acts of massive violence, anti-Americanism has prompted few serious
studies in English. This collection of original reports and
observations seeks to explain its impact in areas throughout the
world, taking advantage of the cultural and geographical expertise
of the contributors. Understanding Anti-Americanism distinguishes
between rational and specific critiques of American foreign policy
and American society on the one hand, and that brand of hostile
predisposition that blames the United States for a wide variety of
grievances and frustrations that are at best tangentially related
to its policies, institutions, or way of life. The book includes
essays on the historical origins of anti-Americanism and its
occurrences in the Arab world, Western Europe, post-Communist
Russia, Latin America, and China. Like-minded sentiments within the
United States are examined in the contexts of education, mass
culture, the peace movements, and feminist rejections of American
society, and in a comparison of trends between the 1960s and the
twenty-first century. Recent international developments as well as
U.S. leadership in modernization and globalization receive special
attention as sources of hostility. Among the contributors are James
Ceaser, Patrick Clawson, Walter Connor, Anthony Daniels, Dario
Fernandez-Morera, Adam Garfinkle, Roger Kimball, Harvey Klehr,
Michael Radu, Barry Rubin, Bruce Thornton, Arthur Waldron, and
Cathy Young. In his substantial Introduction, Paul Hollander
examines the major sources and expressions of anti-Americanism and
suggests reasons why it is unlikely to disappear or diminish in the
near future, notwithstanding its irrational features and the
spectacle of millions of people voting with their feet to become
members of this much maligned society.
In 540 BC, Heraclitus said "the only constant is change." He was
wrong. Napoleon Hill used the secret to success but it wasn't the
Law of Attraction. The greatest challenges we face in this time
starved, techo-fueled accelerating world are the ones we put in our
own way. We must learn to un-learn. We must communicate in the
absence of time.
A society devoid of ethics, is not a society... it is merely a
group of opportunists, waiting to pounce. Ethics should not be some
dry academic study. It should be the guidepost by which we choose
to live. Our reward for making that choice, collectively is a
society that is safer, more benign, more profitable and ultimately
more free than one which does not. Just like so many other things
in our lives, Ethics require exercise to become stronger. The
purpose of this book is to encourage people to ponder and debate
how they might better approach the complex moral dilemmas that life
throws at us.
Short is a collection of eight short stories. One of them is SHORT.
Actually all of them are short, that is why they are called short
stories but one of them is actually named SHORT, you know, instead
of tall. . Athough there are tall tales... but that is something
else. Nevermind, it is probably easier just to read the book.
Hobert does a Tradeshow is an uniquely different look at one of
marketing's most powerful (and often misused) tools - the
tradeshow. This modern business fable walks people through the
process in a different and entertaining fashion. It also includes a
number of useful attachments in Hobert's appendix (that just never
sounds right...)
The ultimate source of clean, renewable energy isn't solar. wind or
geothermal and it already produces 20% of all the electricity used
on earth. It is gravity. Falling water powers every hydroelectric
plant. It doesn't consume or convert matter. It doesn't generate
any harmful by-products No fuel, no moving parts, completely
silent. Yet it keeps the universe in balance. Simple But what
happens when two men unlock the means to control gravity. Virtually
limitless, cheap, clean power... The gravity of their stuation
increases exponentially. Ultimately- "G" is a story about power.
More and more people today are departing from organized religion
today and instead choose to find a different pathway to find
spiritual fulfillment. Rocks in the path is a collection of
questions raised and answers found over the course of a lifetime.
It is an attempt to reconcile the spiritual and secular demands of
our world today.
Original reports and observations that analyze the causes and
impact of anti-Americanism in areas throughout the world. It
distinguishes between rational and specific critiques of American
foreign policy and American society on the one hand, and that brand
of hostile predisposition that blames the United States for a wide
variety of grievances and frustrations that are at best
tangentially related to its policies, institutions, or way of life.
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