Vanguard of the Revolution: The Global Idea of the Communist Party
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.84 (527 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0691168946 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 584 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-12-26 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
A terrific read."--Lowell Dittmer, University of California, Berkeley"This is a very welcome and engaging book that traces the history of the communist party from Karl Marx to the lowering of the red flag over the Kremlin in 1991. McAdams not only provides a fascinating and detailed history of the evolution of communism among its most prominent practitioners, he shows us why so many have fought and died for it despite the ideological persecution and economic disaster wrought in its name. McAdams has produced a volume that will be savored by a very wide readership in the years ahead."--Jeffrey Kopstein, author of The Politics of Economic Decline in East Germany, 1945–1989. McAdams knows his stuff and is an excellent analyst."--Norman M. N
James McAdams argues that the rise and fall of communism can be understood only by taking into account the origins and evolution of this compelling idea. He shows how the leaders of parties in countries as diverse as the Soviet Union, China, Germany, Yugoslavia, Cuba, and North Korea adapted the original ideas of revolutionaries like Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin to profoundly different social and cultural settings.Taking readers from the drafting of The Communist Manifesto in the 1840s to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, McAdams describes the decisive role played by individual rulers in the success of their respective partiesmen like Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Fidel Castro. He demonstrates how these personalities drew on vying conceptions of the party’s functions to mesmerize their followers, mobilize their populations, and transform their societies. McAdams explains why communist parties lasted as long as they did, and why they either disappeared or ceased to be meaningful institutions by the close of the twentieth century.The first comprehensive political history of the communist party, Vanguard of the Revolution is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand world comm
Scholl Professor of International Affairs and director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame. James McAdams is the William M. His many books include Judging the Past in Unified Germany and Germany Divided: From the Wall to Reunification (Princeton). . A. He lives in South Bend, Indiana