Khrushchev: The Man and His Era

Book Description

Shortlisted for the National Books Critics Circle Award: "The book is a gift, as fascinating as it is important."—Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs

The definitive biography of the mercurial Soviet leader who succeeded and denounced Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev was one of the most complex and important political figures of the twentieth century. Ruler of the Soviet Union during the first decade after Stalin's death, Khrushchev left a contradictory stamp on his country and on the world. His life and career mirror the Soviet experience: revolution, civil war, famine, collectivization, industrialization, terror, world war, cold war, Stalinism, post-Stalinism. Complicit in terrible Stalinist crimes, Khrushchev nevertheless retained his humanity: his daring attempt to reform communism prepared the ground for its eventual collapse; and his awkward efforts to ease the cold war triggered its most dangerous crises.

This is the first comprehensive biography of Khrushchev and the first of any Soviet leader to reflect the full range of sources that have become available since the USSR collapsed. Combining a page-turning historical narrative with penetrating political and psychological analysis, this book brims with the life and excitement of a man whose story personified his era.

Customer Reviews:

REVIEW OF WILLIAM TAUBMAN'S KHRUSCHEV BY JOHN CHUCKMAN.......2007-02-27

It's about time we had a decent biography of Nikita Khruschev.

Khruschev is a more important historical figure than seems generally appreciated today. He was something of a refreshing presence on the dreary world scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s. I remember his American tour, and you couldn't help but find a kind of pleasant and infectious quality in some of his observations and activities. I believe he sincerely wanted to slow or halt the Cold War the same way he diminished the horrors of Stalinism, an historic achievement.

Taubman doesn't capture the more idealistic sense of Khruschev, which I believe was genuine, because I was a young man through his time and took an interest in events.

Taubman's Khruschev is a bright (Khruschev had considerable analytical ability and a remarkable memory) peasant risen to the top, an extremely crude man, always regretful about his lack of formal education, who never ceases to behave as something of a Father Karamazov. I have no doubt there is truth here, but it provides an incomplete picture.

Was Khruschev any cruder than what we now know of the private life of John Kennedy, who had prostitutes swimming in the White House pool while Jackie was away, or of the public Lyndon Johnson, who used to conduct interviews and bark orders while relieving himself? I ask this because Taubman repeats the word crude or offers anecdotes about crude behavior many, many times.

Even as a young man I thought many of Khruschev's crudities were not so great as they were treated by America's press. The banging of his shoe at the U.N. is a favorite example. Crude? Yes. But significant beyond style? I think not much.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in biography, the period, world affairs, or Soviet history, but I do have reservations about it, and it should be read with some caution.

Taubman weaves into the text too great a sense of the correctness of America's position and policies of the time, giving a sense of Khruschev largely representing an irritating and sometimes dangerous opponent to them. America often behaved in provocative and dangerous ways through the Cold War. Taubman mentions some matters, as Eisenhower's saying that if the Soviets over-flew the United States the way the United States regularly invaded Soviet airspace there would be war, but the week-to-week reality of this is not stressed enough here to appreciate the intensity of the Soviet point of view. There were many such matters, including American submarines actually colliding with Soviet boats.

Taubman gives a lot of attention to Khruschev's well-known habit of rattling his rockets in speeches, but we are not given enough background for why he might do this. The Pentagon actually had plans in the mid-1950s for an atomic pre-emptive attack on the Soviets. Generals like Curtis LeMay, the man who bombed Japan to the point of gratuitous horror, openly advocated nuclear hostilities. And, of course, America had used the atomic bomb, twice.

Taubman's treatment of matters like the Cuban Missile Crisis suffers from this. The U.S. had a huge, generously-finaced terrorist operation going against Cuba at the time, including along more than one track, and that is an important part of the background that Taubman treats with what I believe is neglect. Taubman's words on the ghastly Bay of Pigs does reveal hints of American jingo attitudes. They are not offered loudly, but they are there, and I think they should not be if we want to understand what motivated Khruschev.

One of the great missing chapters in the book is any detail around the Kennedy assassination. The assassination is there but not treated adequately. It was, after all, an epic event which had great consequences on both the Soviets and America. Of course, to treat the assassination adequately involves going into issues that remain murky and controversial.

Despite my reservations, the book is an interesting and worthwhile read, however, I certainly do not agree with the New York Times review which said "Succeeds in every sense...unlikely to be surpassed any time soon...."

Good, not great...Slow for first half.......2006-12-20

This biography is the kind that I like. It's about an intermediate figure and uses that individual's life to frame up the times (ref: my review of Paul Preston's Franco biography).

Taubman does an excellent job of research and a good job at having a view about Krushchev's character and motives. However, the book is just not executed that well. The early years are presented fairly slowly and don't seem as tightly focused given that Taubman does have a thesis about Krushchev the man. This may just be that there are gaps in what he could learn about earlier years. The second half when Krushchev is in charge picks up a great deal. Some of this is just that the stakes are higher plus he has better sources since there are/were people alive to interview. However, even here there is some sloppiness in presentation.

The book is an excellent confirmation that much of what occurs in history is because of the idiosyncracies of individuals. Anyone who has worked in a large corporation would be familiar with unusual decision-making processes based on the personalities of people. That reality is presented clearly here even including how Eisenhower and Kennedy are presented in their dealings with Krushchev. On the one hand, it's almost amazing that war was avoided, But on the other hand, all of these individuals understood the amount of death that would have occurred and worked hard to avoid it. It speaks well that all understood that losing face was just fine compared to killing millions of people. However, it is repeatedly presented that Krushchev was certain that nuclear weapons could not and would not be used so the irony is that it made it easier to threaten with resulting in the view that he was kind of a mad man. It's similar to two bullies ready to fight as long as someone is restraining both of them. The good news is that Krushchev was not fundamentally evil like a Hitler who probably would have used the weapons.

But, this leads to the most interesting question about Krushchev. Taubman clearly speaks to the contradiction of Krushchev participating in Stalin's purges but then subsequently denouncing these crimes. While not overtly stating it, Taubman presents Krushchev as a true believer in communism who is willing to kill to achieve it for the "greater good." I think the book should have more clearly discussed the probability that Krushchev also accepted that killing was necessary for his own personal power. And, if so, could everything have not just been the pursuit of personal advancement/power with communism as a convenient support for that? Did any of these communist leaders (Lenin, Stalin, Mao) actually believe what they were saying? Taubman does not address this.

The other gap I think the book has is that it doesn't really speak much about Brezhnev. Given that Brezhnev maintains power till death, was there a contrast in his approach that would have shed light on Krushchev. My guess is that there probably is and I think it also might have helped answer the question of whether Krushchev ever believed in communism or was just out for himself.

As it is, it is easy to say that Krushchev was not evil in the way that Stalin was. Once he was in charge, it became possible to be retired from the government rather than always branded a traitor and executed. Even to the point, that Krushchev could be forced to retire.

So, this is a worthy read but expect to work a bit to get through it.

Wonderful (and scary) history of an era and a man.......2006-06-01

In the last 60's, Krushchev wrote "Khrushchev Remembers", a self-serving memoir. It was interesting to read depsite its heavy slant, but the book didn't provide the reader with a sense of the man, and it was clearly censored by Soviet authorities. William Taubman has written a fine biography that gives us a clear and astonishing picture of Krushchev along with a snapshot of the Stalin-era purges and a superb picture of the Cold War. He uses interviews with Krushchev's former associates and with his son Sergei to great effect. He also uses archives that became available only after the Soviet Union fell apart. As a result of his research and clear writing, we feel like we know the man who darn near blew us all up during the Cuban missle crisis. (Or at least that was the feeling I had in 1962, watching in a college dorm as it all unfolded on TV.)

It's scary to see Krushchev as Taubman displays him. We knew he was a boor when he took off his shoe and pounded his desk at the UN in 1960, but it was fascinating to read about his highly charged, highly politicized encounters with Soviet artists and writers in the early 60s. Taubman shows us the man's temperament, which makes one wonder at how the Cold War failed to cause a nuclear war. It also makes one marvel at the distortion in national policies that come about when one person has such enormous power and is so undisciplined.

Although the character flaws Taubman illuminates are serious and frightening in retrospect, Taubman also shows how important Krushchev was in ending the Stalinist era. In 1953, a politician in the USSR who fell from power would have been shot; in 1964 Krushchev was simply booted out, given a pension and made to shut up.

It's hard to imagine anyone having better access to Khrushchev's contemporaries, and Taubman puts an astonishing story together for us in a beautuifully understated way.

A Surprisingly Human Portrait.......2006-05-08

My mom -- white bread, Communist-fearing, life-long Democrat -- has always had a soft spot for Nikita Khruschev. "I just don't think he was that bad. He couldn't have been that bad if he cried after President Kennedy died." This book vindicates my mom. He really *did* cry after Kennedy died -- although it's not clear how much that was due to grief and how much that was due to the realization he'd have to work with a US president with some actual political experience and ties in LBJ. (No word on how my mom knew about the crying thing....KGB files have now been closed).

But even if Nikita Sergeyevitch, right hand man to Stalin, participant(however distasteful) in the Ukraine purges, cold war bully to Kennedy's (and to some degree Eisenhower's) naivete, and shoe banger extraordinaire wasn't Mr. Sentimentality, this book divulges a lot about him we can be grateful for. And in looking at the darker side of this major player of the 20th century, Taubman excels at helping us understand him from all angles: his son Sergei, Khruschev's own papers, the historical record here and in Russia, and indeed the correspondence between Khruschev and Kennedy, which began during the Cuban Missile Crisis and did not end until the fall of 1963 (both undoubtedly expected it to continue).

The last is indeed the most poignant, perhaps just for the American reader, perhaps for all of us, since it does signify the attempts of two great but flawed leaders to struggle with the immense burden on their shoulders and try to come to some kind of understanding for the sake of their nations. In doing so, they seem just about to build a friendship.

I found the book a bit too long, and would like the prose to have gone at a more clipping pace. Better editing may have helped. But I will read it again someday and I'm glad to have it on my shelf. I don't see how it could become outdated or lose its importance.

Very disappointing - not much meat.......2006-02-13

First off, I read the British printing not the U.S. - but I assume it's the same text.

The entire book left me feeling like I was not getting much. It's an immense book and the writing is tight so it is covering a lot of ground.

But... I kept finding myself asking, what was going on here. Why did this event happen. Why did Khrushchev do this and not do that.

The most egregious example is when he was removed from power - there is nothing about how it happened. The book jumps from he is absolute ruler to two days after he has lost all power. Who did it? How did they pull it off? What did Khrushchev do if anything to try and retain his power? You won't find out here.

And then there is the central question that makes Khrushchev such a fascinating person - how did he survive under Stalin, helping in many of the purges, yet when he took over, virtually eliminate state sanctioned murder. On this subject the book talks a little, but so very little.

The banal and boring parts of his life are here. The interesting parts are not.

Khrushchev on Khrushchev: An Inside Account of the Man and His Era, by His Son

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Unique reading on 'Mr. K'

Khrushchev on Khrushchev: An Inside Account of the Man and His Era, by His Son
Sergei Khrushchev
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0316491942

Customer Reviews:

Unique reading on 'Mr. K'.......1998-12-12

Nikita S. Khrushchev was perhaps the most interesting leader the Soviet Union ever had, and was certainly one of the most intriging characters of the 20th century. A strange mix of the wise and the foolish, he tried, but could not significantly change, the U.S.S.R. for the better. In some ways, Gorbachev was the "Khrushchev" of this time, and not the other way around.

I read this book in grad school and could not put it down. As the son of, as the Americans called him, 'Mr. K,' Sergei Khrushchev had a special perspective on this man and his time, and this is a must-read for anyone interested in the subject. The younger Krushchev certainly loved his father, and it shows in the book sometimes to access, but by and large the account is objective.

There are several touching and personal passages in the book, too numerous to mention here. I was particularly taken with the episode in which the younger Krushchev found out about the coup that was about to overtake his father and warned him that (rough transcription): "X is setting up a coup against you." He then got the shock of his life when his father came home from the Politburo the next day ranting (rough transcription again): "You silly boy! I just spoke to X today. He says there's no coup going on!" Classic Nikita S. Khrushchev.

Sergei N. Khrushchev has succeeded in producing a sensitive, illuminating account of a special time in our world. The book is an easy and concise read, yet the reader will come out with a very deep understanding of so many of the people and forces that shaped that time. This is what good reading is supposed to be. Bravo!

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Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
William Taubman
Manufacturer: Books on Tape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: 0736696504

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24 1.5 hour cassettes read by Michael Prichard.

Khrushchev on Khrushchev: An Inside Account of the Man & His Era by His Son, Sergie Khrushchev

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Khrushchev on Khrushchev: An Inside Account of the Man & His Era by His Son, Sergie Khrushchev
William Taubman
Manufacturer: Random House Value Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0517079704
Release Date: 1992-06-13

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Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
William Taubman
Manufacturer: Books on Tape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000VRSS0Q

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Never opened. 24 Cassettes; on 1.5 unabridged tapes. Taubman;s biography goie beyond he shoe-banging on a U.N. podium. Listeners learn of the leader's enormous bredth as one of Stalin's three closest cronies, et in 1956, he exposed Stalin's crimes and de-Stalinized Russia. An award-winning audiobook for your permanent collection.

Khrushchev: The Man and His Era.(Book Review): An article from: The Historian

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Khrushchev: The Man and His Era.(Book Review): An article from: The Historian
Serhy Yekelchyk
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000B9DV38
Release Date: 2005-09-03

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Historian, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2005. The length of the article is 584 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Khrushchev: The Man and His Era.(Book Review)
Author: Serhy Yekelchyk
Publication: The Historian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 67 Issue: 2 Page: 374(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Khruschchev on Khruschchev: An Inside Account of the Man and His Era,

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Khruschchev on Khruschchev: An Inside Account of the Man and His Era,
SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RQS9ZK

Khrushchev on Khrushchev - An Inside Account of the Man and His Era

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Khrushchev on Khrushchev - An Inside Account of the Man and His Era
Sergei Khrushchev
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company, Boston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VZPUYU

Book Description

Covers the development and use of the Tiger family of armored fighting vehicles., b/w photographs, line drawings, 11" x 8 1/4"

Customer Reviews:

Not even worth half the S&H.......2007-09-24

Ordered 6 books at same time. One, the "Tiger Family" was just 47 pages of pictures and hardly any words and not informative at all. $8.39 + 3.99

Book Description

Peter Singer identifies the central vision that unifies Marx's thought, enabling us to grasp Marx's views as a whole. He sees him as a philosopher primarily concerned with human freedom, rather than as an economist or a social scientist. He explains alienation, historical materialism, the economic theory of Capital, and Marx's ideas of communism, in plain English, and concludes with an assessment of Marx's legacy.

Customer Reviews:

Publisher Notes:.......2006-10-10

The Past Masters Series is a concise, lucid , aythoritative introduction to the thought of leading intellectual figures of the past whose ideas still influence the way we think today. ... sees Marx as a philosopher, rather than as an economist or social scientis. ' an admirably balanced portrait of the man and his achievement' says Philip Toynbee, Observer.

not bad, but not good.......2006-02-10

Very little of the text is devoted to analyzing Marx's most important work. For example, a total of one chapter (~30 pages) is devoted to Das Kapital, Marx's seminal work.

On the other hand, excessive attention is paid to unimportant aspects of Marx. For example, most of the book is spent analyzing Marx's philosophical background, his obscure earlier works, his philosophical predecessors (Hegel & Feuerbach), and the effects of his doctrines. The chapter devoted to Singer's mediocre economic analysis is as long as the chapter devoted to Das Kapital!

Although the book has some good material, that good material constitutes only ~30 pages.

An easy to follow introduction.......2005-04-13

I am doing an MA in political science and my professor screwed his nose up a bit when I showed him this, because Singer is not a name that one associates with Marxism. I bought it because I liked his anthology on Ethics so much. I must say that I don't agree with some of the conclusions that Singer draws in his assessment of Marxism at the end of the book, but his strength is his ability to write at a level that is easy to understand. He avoids jargon where possible and that in itself takes a lot of the mystery out of this stuff. I recommend this book as a good place to start when looking at Marx.

A Little TOO Short.......2005-02-28

I felt the later chapters of this book were well developed, but the first few chapters on how Marx developed his philosophy from Hegel's left me with more questions than answers. Overall, the book provides are decent foundation on which to critique Marx as a philosopher, social scientist, economist, etc. Singer brings up many common objections to Marxist thought, but he also presents Marx's ideas in a non-bias way and gives credit where he sees credit is due. I found the biography of Marx to be interesting along with the subtleties of his relationship with Engels. But in the end, I wish this book had been a little more detailed, especially with regards to Marx's early works and philosophy.

An almost ideal introduction to the subject........2003-08-22

Peter Singer's "Marx: A Very Short Introduction" is a superbly lucid and concise introduction to the subject of Marx and Marxism. Assuming the reader has no background in Marx's thought, Singer covers most of the important issues of Marxism and then assesses Marx's achievements and shortcomings in a refreshingly balanced manner.

What makes this book such a valuable introduction is Singer's clear understanding of what lies at the heart of Marxism: the issue of human freedom. Too many works on Marxism reduce it to a merely economic philosophy, which has the destruction of capitalism (and subsequent liberation of the world's workers) as its end. This is a gross misrepresentation of Marx's thought. Marx saw the destruction of capitalism and the establishment of a classless society as means toward the true end which he sought: the liberation of humanity from oppression and exploitation and a return to our true nature as creative, self-actualizing beings rather than mere laboring appendages to an economic machine. Marx envisioned a world in which humanity toiled with its individual and universal fulfillment as the goal, rather than a world in which a few grow rich while the many dig ditches or work in Asian sweatshops for Nike. Freedom, true freedom, was the purpose behind Marx's work and also his life.

Book Description

What is fascism? Is it revolutionary? Or is it reactionary? This book argues that it is both: fascism unleashes violence against the left and ethnic minorities, but also condemns the bourgeoisie for its 'softness'. Kevin Passmore opens his book with a series of 'scenes from fascist life' - a secret meeting of the Romanian Iron Guard; Mussolini meeting the king of Italy; a rally of Hungarian doctors calling for restrictions on the number of Jews entering the profession; the shooting of 1800 Jews by Reserve Police Battalion 101 at Jozefow in Poland in July 1942. He then looks at the paradoxes of fascism through its origins in the political and social crisis of the late nineteenth century, the history of fascist movements and regimes in Italy and Germany, and the fortunes of 'failed' fascist movements in Romania, Hungary and Spain. He shows how fascism used and uses propaganda and popular culture to propagate itself and how it exported its ideas outside Europe, through Nazi and Spanish post-war escape routes to Latin America, for instance. The book concludes with a discussion of the recent revival of the extreme right in Austria, Italy, France, and Russia.

Customer Reviews:

Good intro to a nebulous topic.......2007-08-08

The term "fascism" gets tossed around a lot. Passmore helps distinguish between groups with fascist elements (a sizable group) and "dyed-in-the-wool" fascists (few and far between, especially nowadays). This book would serve as a good primer to help enlighten discussion of comparative politics. Also, anyone engaging in political discourse would be well-served to use this text as a guidepost before hurling "fascist" accusations at commentators from the conservative side of the political spectrum.

This is a small yet powerful book.......2007-05-15

This is the first book on Fascism that I have read so far. I was curious about Fascism because it was the prevailing political and economic system in both Germany and Italy at the beginning of World War 2 and that war is one of my favorite reading subjects.

I found the book readable, detailed and, very clear. The book carries a lot of information for being only an introduction to Fascism. You will find out that Fascism is a broad term that, nonetheless, did not fully describe any system defined as such (fascist) in any of the countries where it is recognized that it took hold. Fascism is related to many concepts such as: corporatism, ultra nationalism, paramilitarism, anti-feminism, racism (or at least xenophobia), autarky, totalitarianism, rule by terror, messianic message, tight control of unions and labour, presence of both radical and conservative social and economic measures, cult of personality (of a strong, supreme leader), and bent on welfare and total employment for the "true" nationals. Sometimes it bordered on Paganism (as in Nazi Germany) and sometimes it was firmly bound to a religion (Catholicism in Franco's Spain and the Christian Orthodox Church in Romania).

The author also presents an outlook of the current political movements throughout Europe (mostly) that could be termed fascist like. This is indeed a thorough introduction to Fascism. Five stars for this book.

A Clear Overview of a Complex Subject.......2006-04-07

When one considers the ideology of fascism many notions and images spring to mind: totalitarianism, nationalism, ultranationalism, racism, oppression, censorship, violence, Nazism, Para militarism, right wing conservatism, radicalism, eugenics and the Holocaust. As Kevin Passmore suggests, Fascism is all these things and not these things, as it has a mercurial nature. In fact, "...fascism, as Ortega y Gasset says, is always `A' and not `A'." (p.11)

Passmore devotes most of this text to the inter-war years where fascism manifested in its most blatant forms. Although Mussolini and Hitler have been labelled or are the most famous fascists in modern history, their brand of fascism, however, and how they developed, are quite different. For the most part, fascism is multi-layered and complex, as it attracts all genders, and people from all classes and political sensibilities. To define this elusive term, the author has attempted to reveal the specific historical context in which fascism, in its various forms, raised its head - and from these studies, similarities can be made.

What are the common denominators inclusive to fascism? According to Passmore, its central purpose is national unity. However it is a national unity in the way "they" define it. He goes on to write that all "isms", that is to say, feminism, socialism, communism, capitalism etc., particularly for the ultranationalism form of fascism, are rejected wholesale, as the entire nation must conform to the one ideal. Most common to fascism is the desire to rid their particular country of all foreigners, to ensure all aspects of social and economic life are controlled. Immigration is stopped totally and immigrants are either persuaded to leave the country or, in the case of the Nazis, exterminated. Moreover, Passmore believes that Fascist social policy, for example, "...is consciously shaped by ultranationalism, political discrimination, and racism." (p. 150)

Fascism today, Passmore suggests, continues to exist in its many forms across the globe, however, these political parties choose not to call themselves fascist as the term has too many negative connotations. The author prefers to call the new fascists, "national-populism", as they are essentially the rise of the extreme right, included in such countries as France, Denmark, Austria and the United States. In France, the far-right party, the French National Front, focuses on the "foreign elements" and the advance of socialism, feminism and immigration. Whereas in the United States, nation populism has manifested in the form of "militias", white supremacist who are radically against government regulation or intervention of any kind.

Although a brief overview of fascism and its whys and hows, for the most part, it is clearly written, easily understood despite its complex subject matter, and a text that makes the reader want to investigate further.

A solid introduction to a surprisingly complex subject.......2005-11-27

Fascism is one of the more complex political movements of the past century and one of the more difficult to satisfyingly define. Philosophers sometimes seek the necessary and sufficient conditions for defining some term or concept. The problem with fascism is that while there are a number of necessary conditions, they are not in themselves sufficient in designating a movement as fascist. Fascism is always ultranationalistic, racist, and anti-liberal, but these are features it holds in common with a host of other right wing political movements. In the end, identifying a movement as fascist is more of an art than a science, akin to the famous definition of obscenity by U. S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart: "I know it when I see it." Kevin Passmore's fine book can help one know it when one sees a fascist movement.

It is important to understand this movement for a host of reasons, many of them historical but some of them contemporary. For instance, calling someone a fascist has become a commonplace of contemporary political vituperation. In the 2004 election I heard a number of people call Bush a fascist, and while he holds a few positions in common with fascism, they are in the end very few and the differences significant. Less understandably, I heard more than one right wing commentator call Kerry a fascist, which is beyond comprehension, since he does not espouse a single position that connects with what we understand as fascism. So we really do need to understand what it means when we properly identify someone as a fascist. Passmore's approach is primarily to discuss a host of national situations from a historical perspective that were at the time either self-identified as fascist or, in the wake of WW II and the utter discreditation of fascism, that share a significant number of features with pre-WW II fascism. Obviously this approach means discussing Italian and German fascism, but Passmore also spends a good amount of time on nations that will be unfamiliar to all but serious students of Eastern Europe, such as Romania.

The picture that gradually emerges of fascism is of a movement that is anti-modern, rascist, masculine and anti-feminist, corporatist, rabidly nationalistic, rural rather than urban, largely undemocratic, leans towards a dictatorship, tends to be anti-free market and at the same time anti-trade union, and paramilitary in nature. What can be bewildering is that not every incarnation of fascism can be characterized by all of these features. This is less true of pre-WW II fascism than post-war, when movements that are largely fascist have been forced to espouse democratic principles and even claim not to be racist. In the end, what one gains is not a crystal clear of what is or is not fascism, but a general impression of what might count as a fascist movement.

This is not a well-written book, which is the only complaint I would like to make about it. The structure is awkward and one chapter does not naturally flow into one another. There seems to be little rhyme or reason why one bit of the subject is dealt with in one part of the book and not another. Furthermore, Passmore never really states clearly what he sees as lying at the heart of fascism. I managed to figure out what he meant by typing out various identifying characteristics as I read through the text, but unless one undertakes some such exercise, one could end the book a bit confused about the whole matter. Had the book been more clearly structured, it would be a far more valuable introduction to the subject. In the end, one does get a good sense about fascism, but only if one is willing to work hard towards that end. The author doesn't help the reader as much as he might have. Nonetheless, I strongly recommend this book. Although we are unlikely to see the kind of fascist movements that we saw in the interwar years, it represents tendencies in political thinking that have never really disappeared and persist even today. We need to be sensitive to these tendencies and prepared to deal with them in the future.

From the Burning Ashes - The Phoenix Rises !!!.......2005-05-06

......and I think it is carrying a bundle of rods with an axe in the middle.

Oh, this guy is good. Now he has some weird quirks in his writing. He contradicts himself, has some flawed statements and weirdly connects the feminine and racial issues on an elementary level. Some jargon in this book is also incomprehensible. And, I bet $100 this guys a romanticist (far above his other personality levelers of realist and classicist creativity stabilizers - the three are balanced out in one way or another) - like for example Jean-Jacque Rousseau. I must also highly disagree with Steven Tooley (below) .... However, that of course is my opinion.

All right, all the above does not matter. ALL the time that I see crap like this, I automatically throw it out. Nevertheless, this guy comes up with some incredible insights and very original outlook and reasoning beyond even the above average humanities writer (he is a history lecturer at Cardiff - with some good horse sense of politics and philosophy). He also injects parts of history that other authors have not made of certain unique connections. He has totally analyzed this subject - Fascism - and gives you different and in-depth angles to look through. He takes you a cross "paths" that have never been crossed before.

Read this with tongue-in-check mentality. You can easily see and discard this nonsense. There is highly valuable information here. This person has made a (small) book of only 158 pages, but he jams it full of Great information on Fascism. I would have sworn, after reading this, that I had just finished a large book. There is no real filler here (except for the quirks mentioned above).

Oxford Press does it again - but the other "very short introductions" series are not as high of caliber as this is.

These three books will give you THE best insight on Fascism. No others come close to the brilliance of the material.

1) Fascism by Roger Griffin (edited by Roger Griffin) This is the best book on Fascism. There is no better way to truly understand something unless to go to the SOURCE(S).
2) Fascism A Very Short Introduction by Kevin Passmore
3) The Nature of Fascism edited by S.J. Woolf (NOT the book by R. Griffin on the same title)

In conclusion, Oxford University Press (UK) and the University of Chicago (USA) crank out some great books on political philosophy etc. Although, some of them are out of print. Alibris will get them for ya!

Socialism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

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The chips are down

Socialism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Michael Newman
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192804316

Book Description

What is socialism? Does it have a future, or has it become an outdated ideology in the 21st century? Michael Newman examines and explains the successes and failures of modern socialism by taking an international perspective -- ranging from communism in Cuba to social democracy in Sweden. Discussing its evolution from the industrial towns of the 19th century to its response to the feminist, green, and anti-capitalist movements today, Newman concludes that, with its values of equality, solidarity, and cooperation, socialism remains as relevant as ever but that it needs to learn lessons from the past.

Customer Reviews:

The chips are down .......2006-03-13

An outstanding introduction and a meaty one too. Now that I've read three books in the "very short introduction" series, it has been a pleasant surprise to see how formidable these book are.

References, suggestions for further reading and a 9 page index are included.

Newman does not hide the problems that socialists have had but neither does he fail to recognize the ways in which they might help.

The analyses of Cuban communism and Swedish social democracy were illuminating. Socialism may not have dominated, but it has not always been the failure that it is made out to be.

Newman claims "What can be maintained with confidence is that capitalism will not be able to resolve the problems and injustices that it causes...and that socialist arguments remain relevant". He notes the challenge, beyond whatever problems socialists themselves have in running an economy, that "At present, Washington is opposed to any international regimes that might limit its autonomy and is willing to use its power to thwart their development."

Unlike the literature I've read of many socialist parties, which tend to be simplistic and shallow in analysis, Newman does manage in this "very short introduction" multi-dimensional explorations of the challenges facing socialism. He continues to value the role of trade unions, the greens and feminists. The socialist effort is fragmented and it is not clear in what ways it can be effective. Like many socialists, Newman's moral concerns seem clear but Newman's openness and flexibility seems all the more valuable at a time when many socialist groups seem dogmatic and rigid.

Newman's "very short introduction" seems one of the best statements on what Socialism today has to offer.

Engels: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

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Engels: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Terrell Carver
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192804669

Book Description

It is by no means absurd to say that Engels invented Marxism. His work did more than Marx to make converts of the most influential political movement of modern times. He was not only the father of dialectical and historical materialism, the official philosophies of history and science in many communist countries; he was also the first Marxist historian, anthropologist, philosopher, and commentator on early Marx. In his later years Engels developed his materialist interpretation of history, his chief intellectual legacy, which has had revolutionary effects on the arts and social sciences. Terrell Carver traces its source and its effect on the development of Marxist theory and practice, assesses its utility, and discusses the difficulties which Marxists have encountered in defending it.

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Socialism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Michael Newman
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKMN0G

Product Description

An informative & accessible introduction to the fascinating world of birdwatching. With black & white illustrations & exquisite four-color photography, this book is the ideal guide to the birding experience. All the essentials for the beginner to enjoy birdwatching are covered: equipment, identification techniques, field guides, optics for birders, birding by 'ear', & much more. Also valuable are chapters on viewing bird behaviors such as feeding, flight, feather care, nesting, & migration so the birder understands not just what kind of bird it is, but what the bird is doing. In addition, a selection of appendices cover everything from birding organizations to birding publications.

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