The Rise and Fall of Communism
by: Archie Brown
Published by: HarperCollins
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Reviewed by Richard Skaff
In these murky times where the world is witnessing the near collapse of Capitalism, comes an eloquent, enlightening, and comprehensive volume that covers the rise and fall of Communism from an Anglo-American perspective.
Author Brown traced Communism from its nineteenth century conception to its twentieth century decline. He attempted to examine the roots of the ideology, its expansion in different nations, as well as its collapse in many of those countries following the restructuring of the Soviet economy by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (perestroika).
The book is composed of five parts.
1— The origins and development of communism are discussed in part one.
2— Part two is concerned with the years between the Second World War and the death of Stalin-a period in which communism spread beyond the boundaries of the Soviet Union.
3— The third part deals with communism in the quarter of a century, broadly speaking, after the death of Stalin.
4— The fourth section is concerned mainly with the period from the mid—and late 1970s to the mid-1980s when the problems facing the international Communist movement intensified.
5— The final section, the author addressed a number of big questions, like Karl Marx’s argument that capitalism contained the seeds of its own destruction, which turned out to be truer of Communist systems.
A major task that the author had to take was to attempt to provide a reliable account of, and novel information on the rise and fall of Communism, and on the individuals who played the most significant roles in these turbulent events. However, intentional or not, the book failed to discuss the financing of Communism and the Capitalist power behind it, as well the role of the Anglo-American establishment behind the creation of the Communist bogey man who haunted and will continue to haunt the Western populace for many years to come.
Armchair Interviews says: In these 720 pages, hard-core non-fiction readers will get a superb education about Communism.
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