The rise and fall of Communism
By: Archie Brown
Publisher: Bodley Head
Published: 2009
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 720
ISBN-13: 9780224078795
Subjects: Communism; History; 89.15 communism
Description: In this book, based on 40 years of study & a wealth of new sources, Archie Brown provides a comprehensive history as well as an original & compelling analysis of Communism, an ideology that has shaped the world.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: pt. 1: Origins and development. The idea of communism ; Communism and socialism, the early years ; The Russian revolutions and civil war ; "Building socialism" : Russia and the Soviet Union, 1917-40 ; International communism between the two world wars ; What do we mean by a communist system?; title: pt. 2: Communism ascendant. The appeals of communism ; Communism and the Second World War ; The communist takeovers in Europe; title: indigenous paths ; The communist takeovers in Europe; title: Soviet impositions ; The communists take power in China ; Post-war Stalinism and the break with Yugoslavia; title: pt. 3: Surviving without Stalin. Khrushchev and the Twentieth Party Congress ; Zig-zags on the road to "communism" ; Revisionism and revolution in Eastern Europe ; Cuba, a Caribbean communist state ; China, from the "Hundred Flowers" to "Cultural Revolution" ; Communism in Asia and Africa ; The "Prague Spring" ; "The era of stagnation" : the Soviet Union under Brezhnev; title: pt. 4: Pluralizing pressures. The challenge from Poland : John Paul II, Lech Wałesa, and the rise of Solidarity ; Reform in China : Deng Xiaoping and after ; The challenge of the West; title: pt. 5: Interpreting the fall of communism. Gorbachev, Perestroika, and the attempt to reform communism, 1985-87 ; The dismantling of Soviet communism, 1988-89 ; The end of communism in Europe ; The break-up of the Soviet state ; Why did communism last so long? ; What caused the collapse of communism? ; What's left of communism?