Oxford professor David Priestland tells the epic story of a movement that has taken root in dozens of countries across two hundred years, from its birth after the French Revolution to its ideological maturity in nineteenth-century Germany to its rise to dominance (and subsequent fall) in the twentieth century, and shows how Communism, in all its varieties, appealed to different societies for different reasons.

Today global communism seems just a terrible memory, an expressionist nightmare as horrific as Nazism and the Holocaust, or the slaughter in the First World War. Was it only just over a decade ago that stone-faced old men were still presiding over "workers" paradises in the name of "the people" while hundreds of millions endured grinding poverty under a system of mind-controlling servitude which did not hesitate to murder and imprison whole populations...

"The animals on the farm, led by the pigs, overthrow their human owner and establish their own government based on the principles of Animalism. However, over time, the pigs become increasingly corrupt and oppressive, and the other animals begin to realize that they are no better off under their new leaders than they were under the human owner. The book is a powerful critique of totalitarianism and the dangers of political corruption. Through its depiction...

"This book is a close, careful look at the diabolical side of Karl Marx, a side of a man whose fascination with the devil and his domain would echo into the twentieth century and continue to wreak havoc today. It is a tragic portrait of a man and an ideology, a chilling retrospective on an evil that should have never been let out of its pit." -- Amazon.com

A new biography of Karl Marx, tracing the life of this titanic figure and the legacy of his work Karl Marx remains the most influential and controversial political thinker in history. He died quietly in 1883 and a mere eleven mourners attended his funeral, but a year later he was being hailed as "the Prophet himself" whose name and writings would "endure through the ages." He has been viewed as a philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political...

The Iron Heel (1907) is a novel by American writer Jack London. A groundbreaking work of dystopian science fiction, The Iron Heel was, inspired by London's socialist views and belief in an eventual global upheaval. Although his predictions proved wrong for the United States of the early-twentieth century, London was, recognized by such figures as George Orwell for his foresight regarding the rise of fascism in Europe. The novel is, told from the perspective...

First published in 1952, Witness is the true story of Soviet spies in America and the trial that captivated a nation. Part literary effort, part philosophical treatise, this intriguing autobiography recounts the famous Alger Hiss case and reveals much more. Chambers' worldview and his belief that 'man without mysticism is a monster' went on to help make political conservatism a national force. Regnery History's Cold War Classics edition is the most...

Trace the growth of this influential ideology from Stalin's consolidation of power to the establishment of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere. These 12 half-hour lessons shed intriguing light on a revolutionary movement that played an outsized role in the 20th century and continues to shape 21st-century geopolitics. Your instructor is Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, Distinguished Professor in the Humanities...

"A work of considerable delicacy and nuance….Brown has crafted a readable and judicious account of Communist history…that is both controversial and commonsensical." -Salon.com "Ranging wisely and lucidly across the decades and around the world, this is a splendid book." -William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era The Rise and Fall of Communism is the definitive history from the internationally renowned...