Communism
Communism is defined as "a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the U.S.S.R." or "a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production" (Merriam-Webster).
- Collapse of Communism: Kahn AcademyFrom a literal wall in Berlin to the figurative "iron curtain" its territories created, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union is a dramatic story of the barriers we build and unbuild with ideological tools.
- Communism Today: CQ ResearcherSingle-party authoritarian communist governments still run five countries: Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea and — most significantly — China, with its 1.3 billion inhabitants. In addition, elected communist parties run the governments in Nepal and Cyprus, while communist parties are members of ruling coalitions in South Africa, Belarus, Brazil and six other nations.
- Political and economic changes since the fall of communismWhen asked about changes that have taken place since the end of the communist era, people across the former Eastern Bloc express support for the shift from one-party rule and a state-controlled economy to a multiparty system and a market economy. However, Russians in particular are less supportive of these changes.
- Karl Marx: Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyKarl Marx (1818–1883) is often treated as a revolutionary, an activist rather than a philosopher, whose works inspired the foundation of many communist regimes in the twentieth century. It is certainly hard to find many thinkers who can be said to have had comparable influence in the creation of the modern world. However, Marx was trained as a philosopher, and although often portrayed as moving away from philosophy in his mid-twenties—perhaps towards history and the social sciences—there are many points of contact with modern philosophical debates throughout his writings.
Research & Reference
- Communism: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on communism. This page includes links to reference works, journal articles, and a mind map.
- Communism: ScienceDirectA ScienceDirect landing page covering communism.
Communism | The 20th century | World history | Khan Academy
Overview of Communism and Marxist-Leninist states. Created by Sal Khan.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmRgMAZyYN0
Perspectives
The Rise and Fall of Communism
"A work of considerable delicacy and nuance....Brown has crafted a readable and judicious account of Communist history...that is both controversial and commonsensical." --Salon.com "Ranging wisely and lucidly across the decades and around the world, this is a splendid book." --William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era The Rise and Fall of Communism is the definitive history from the internationally renowned Oxford authority on the subject. Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford University, Archie Brown examines the origins of the most important political ideology of the 20th century, its development in different nations, its collapse in the Soviet Union following perestroika, and its current incarnations around the globe. Fans of John Lewis Gaddis, Samuel Huntington, and avid students of history will appreciate the sweep and insight of this epic and astonishing work.
Remembering Communism
Three main fields have shaped current scholarship on Eastern Europe's communist past: institutional, especially debates concerning the characteristics of the regime; questions on resistance and opposition; and social, cultural, and everyday history. There is a particular urgency in approaching the social and cultural aspects of everyday life under the formula of "remembering communism." Remembering exemplifies a dynamic process that continually reassesses the communist experience. By favoring the term "remembering" over "memory," this book chooses a lived experience that is inflected by the exigencies of the present moment. Dedicated to mediums of remembering (or genres of representation), this collection makes explicit the complex nature of the process. The first section traces different explanatory modes and models following the collapse of "real socialism." The second section on oral history relies on extensive fieldwork at different sites and among diverse groups, including factory workers, village inhabitants, and political émigrés. Subsequent sections provide a concrete glimpse into reassessments of the period, turning to archives, memoirs, and textbooks. The final section handles visual material: fashion magazines, cinema, and monuments. Drawing on examples from Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Ukraine, Remembering Communism responds to, or rather apprehends the peculiarities of transforming an "objective" reality into a subjective one.
The Naked Communist
A timely update to the phenomenal national bestseller. Soon after its quiet release during the height of the Red Scare in 1958, The Naked Communist: Exposing Communism and Restoring Freedom exploded in popularity, selling almost two million copies to date and finding its way into the libraries of the CIA, the FBI, the White House, and homes all across the United States. From the tragic falls of China, Korea, Russia, and the UN, to the fascinating histories of Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers, Elizabeth Bentley, and General MacArthur, The Naked Communist lays out the entire graphic story of communism, its past, present, and future.
The Spiritual-Industrial Complex
In his farewell address, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the nation of the perils of the military-industrial complex. But as Jonathan Herzog shows in this insightful history, Eisenhower had spent his presidency contributing to another, lesser known, Cold War collaboration: the spiritual-industrial complex.This fascinating volume shows that American leaders in the early Cold War years considered the conflict to be profoundly religious; they saw Communism not only as godless but also as a sinister form of religion. Fighting faith with faith, they deliberately used religious beliefs and institutions as part of the plan to defeat the Soviet enemy. Herzog offers an illuminating account of the resultant spiritual-industrial complex, chronicling the rhetoric, the programs, and the policies that became its hallmarks. He shows that well-known actions like the addition of the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance were a small part of a much larger and relatively unexplored program that promoted religion nationwide. Herzog shows how these efforts played out in areas of American life both predictable and unexpected--from pulpits and presidential appeals to national faith drives, military training barracks, public school classrooms, and Hollywood epics. Millions of Americans were bombarded with the message that the religious could not be Communists, just a short step from the all-too-common conclusion that the irreligious could not be true Americans.Though the spiritual-industrial complex declined in the 1960s, its statutes, monuments, and sentiments live on as bulwarks against secularism and as reminders that the nation rests upon the groundwork of religious faith. They continue to serve as valuable allies for those defending the place of religion in American life.
Eyewitness
"The specter of communism that held sway over much of the twentieth century has been effectively laid to rest. But the evil it inflicted on many millions of people during that period should not be forgotten. Eyewitness: Writings from the Ordeal of Communism is intended to serve as a witness to that past and a warning to future generations." "Composed of telling, often searing, excerpts from many eloquent testimonies - including Milovan Djilas, Elena Bonner, Vladimir Bukovsky, Leonid Plyushch, Natan Sharansky, Petro Grigorenko, and Anatoly Marchenko - Eyewitness speaks to the disillusion, the degradation, the despair, the loneliness and agony, and the occasional triumphs that formed the essence of the defector's apostasy."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Curtain Rises
Much has been written about how the authoritarianism of the Communist era gave way to more open societies in the former Soviet bloc countries, yet little has been said about how individuals in these countries have been affected and how they contributed to the changes in their societies. How does the relationship between husband and wife change when planned economy gives way to financial incertitude? When all are free to speak their minds publicly, are children more likely to do so at home or at school? How do the elderly adjust to new laws and fewer pensions? This book describes, in their own words, the lives of everyday people in Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and the Former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia as they struggled under Soviet domination, as they endured the revolutions in their respective countries, and as they now adapt to a free world society. These individuals, struggling with philosophical, political, educational, cultural, and spiritual adjustments, are entrepreneurs, political activists, scientists, and teachers. They are assuming leadership roles in local politics and implementing reforms in the schools. The book includes photographs, maps, and short introductory national histories.
The Passing of an Illusion
François Furet was acknowledged as the twentieth century's preeminent historian of the French Revolution. But years before his death, he turned his attention to the consequences and aftermath of another critical revolution--the Communist revolution. The result, Le passé d'une illusion, is a penetrating history of the ideological passions that have fueled and characterized the modern era. "This may well be the most illuminating study ever devoted to the question of appeal exerted not only by Communism but also by the Nazi and other fascist varieties of totalitarianism in this century."--Hilton Kramer,
Karl Marx
In this magisterial biography of Karl Marx, "likely to be definitive for many years to come" (John Gray, New York Review of Books), historian Jonathan Sperber creates a meticulously researched and multilayered portrait of both the man and the revolutionary times in which he lived. Based on unprecedented access to the recently opened archives of Marx's and Engels's complete writings, Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life provides a historical context for the personal story of one of the most influential and controversial political philosophers in Western history. By removing Marx from the ideological conflicts of the twentieth century that colored his legacy and placing him within "the society and intellectual currents of the nineteenth century" (Ian Kershaw), Sperber is able to present a full portrait of Marx as neither a soothsaying prophet of the modern world nor the author of its darkest atrocities. This major biography fundamentally reshapes our understanding of a towering historical figure.