The God That Failed
Contributors: David Engerman (Foreword); Richard Howard Stafford Crossman (Editor)
Edition: New Ed edition
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: September 15, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9780231123952
Subjects: Marxism & Communism; World history: postwar, from c 1945 -; Political Science; Politics / Current Events; Politics/International Relations; Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism; History / United States / General; Communism
First sentence: A faith is not acquired by reasoning.
Description: "The God That Failed is a classic work and crucial document of the Cold War that brings together essays by six of the most important writers of the twentieth century on their conversion to and subsequent disillusionment with communism. In describing their own experiences, the authors illustrate the fate of leftism around the world. Andre Gide (France), Richard Wright (the United States), Ignazio Silone (Italy), Stephen Spender (England), Arthur Koestler (Germany), and Louis Fischer, an American foreign correspondent, all tell how their search for the betterment of humanity led them to communism, and the personal agony and revulsion which then caused them to reject it. David Engerman's new foreword to this central work of our time recounts the tumultuous events of the era, providing essential background. It also describes the book's origins and impact, the influence of communism in American intellectual life, and how the events described in The God That Failed continue to affect public discourse today."--BOOK JACKET.