{"id":8508,"date":"2013-09-02T12:30:59","date_gmt":"2013-09-02T12:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/09\/02\/reading-about-commies\/"},"modified":"2013-09-02T12:30:59","modified_gmt":"2013-09-02T12:30:59","slug":"reading-about-commies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/09\/02\/reading-about-commies\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading About Commies"},"content":{"rendered":"

In partial answer to a reader's query, here are some good books about Communism.  These are 'second-tier' books.  First read Whittaker Chambers, Witness<\/em>; Leszek Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism<\/em> (three vols.); Cszelaw  Milosz, The Captive Mind<\/em>.  What follows is a 1 August 2004 post updated and expanded from my first weblog.<\/span><\/p>\n

……………..<\/span><\/p>\n

I like reading books by and about Communists and former Communists. One reason is that I think it will give me some insight into the related phenomenon of Islamism, which would not be badly described as the Communism of the 21st century.  Here are some out-of-the-way titles I have dug up recently. I have found them both enlightening and entertaining.  Being  \u2018fair and balanced,\u2019  as everyone knows, I read materials both sympathetic and hostile to Communism. <\/span><\/p>\n

Vivian Gornick, The Romance of American Communism<\/em> (New York: Basic Books, 1977). Consists of sympathetic biographical sketches of numerous American communists.  A very enjoyable read for those who enjoy psychology and biography.   <\/span><\/p>\n

Aileen Kraditor, \u201cJimmy Higgins\u201d: The Mental World of the American Rank-and-File Communist, 1930-1958<\/em> (New York: Greenwood Press, 1988).  An academic sociological study by a former commie, and Boston University professor \u201cwritten from a conservative standpoint.\u201d (Preface)  Strongly recommended, and of course ignored by leftists.  Note that I didn\u2019t say,\u2018suppressed by leftists,\u2019 because that is the silly way they talk.  To ignore something is not to suppress it, any more than to refuse to sponsor or subsidize something is to censor it. Especially egregious is the use of 'voter suppression' by leftists to refer to common sense polling place requirements such as government-issued photo ID.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bella V. Dodd<\/a>, School of Darkness<\/em> (New York: P. J. Kennedy, 1954)  Bella Dodd\u2019s idealism swept her up into the Communist Party, as did Whittaker Chambers' and and the idealism of so many of the best and brightest of their generation.  But after wasting years of her life in the CPUSA, it spit her out. Disillusioned, she turned to Catholicism, taking instruction from none other than Bishop Fulton J. Sheen in New York City.  She had come to the conclusion that the brotherhood of man is possible only under the fatherhood of God.  Her book is available on-line here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ron Radosh<\/a>, Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left, and the Leftover Left<\/em>, Encounter, 2001.  There are some juicy revelations about Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary<\/em>, on pp. 39-40.  But I am too lazy to type them up.  But I'm not too lazy to link to this great PP & M tune<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In partial answer to a reader's query, here are some good books about Communism.  These are 'second-tier' books.  First read Whittaker Chambers, Witness; Leszek Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism (three vols.); Cszelaw  Milosz, The Captive Mind.  What follows is a 1 August 2004 post updated and expanded from my first weblog. …………….. I like reading books … Continue reading “Reading About Commies”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-communism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}