The Anti-Communist Manifestos: Four Books That Shaped the Cold War [Hardcover]

John V. Fleming (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 2009

The books altered the course of history; the lives behind them have the dark fascination of fiction.

The subject of The Anti-Communist Manifestos is four influential books that informed the great political struggle known as the Cold War: Darkness at Noon (1940), by Arthur Koestler, a Hungarian journalist and polymath intellectual; Out of the Night (1941), by Jan Valtin, a German sailor and labor agitator; I Chose Freedom (1946), by Victor Kravchenko, a Soviet engineer; and Witness (1952), by Whittaker Chambers, an American journalist. The authors were ex–Communist Party members whose bitter disillusionment led them to turn on their former allegiance in literary fury.

Koestler was a rapist, Valtin a thug. Kravchenko, though not a spy, was forced to live like one in America. Chambers was a prophet without honor in his own land. Three of the four had been underground espionage agents of the Comintern. All contemplated suicide, and two of them achieved it. John V. Fleming’s humane and ironic narrative of these grim lives reveals that words were the true driving force behind the Cold War.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John V. Fleming is professor emeritus of literature at Princeton University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a past president of the Medieval Academy of America. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Matthew Shaer a staff writer at the Christian Science Monitor In 1946, a Ukrainian defector named Victor Kravchenko published for American audiences a visceral account of the failings of the Soviet system. "I Chose Freedom" was received happily by critics here and rapturously in France, where the tale of slave labor, starvation and collectivization sold by the tens of thousands. Proof that he had struck a nerve came from a series of vicious and sustained attacks from the Parisian liberal press; in 1948 Kravchenko decided to sue the journal Les Lettres françaises for libel. He won, and he returned to the United States a vindicated man. As John V. Fleming notes in his expansive new book, "The Anti-Communist Manifestos," in many ways Kravchenko's life story is also the story of a widespread shift in political sentiment. "I Chose Freedom" presented the "clearest possible dichotomy between the suffering millions and the small clique of Communist tyrants who torture them," Fleming writes. Thus were the horrors of the Soviet experiment brought to the world's attention. "The Anti-Communist Manifestos" takes as its subject "I Chose Freedom" and three other titles that altered the course of the Cold War: "Out of the Night," by Jan Valtin; "Witness," by Whittaker Chambers; and "Darkness at Noon," by Arthur Koestler. Each of these authors had first-hand experience of the Soviet system, and each attracted a sizable -- and influential -- readership. (None of the men, however, was particularly likable.) Fleming, a medievalist by trade, splits his book into quarters, analyzing both the text in question and the historical background. There is something a little forced about the grouping -- after all, the Cold War was a sprawling conflict, and its course was influenced by thousands of variables. But Fleming is a strong writer and a generous guide, and he emerges with a spectacularly nuanced portrait of a pivotal period in world history.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (August 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393069257
• ISBN-13: 978-0393069259
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #832,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John V. Fleming is the Louis W. Fairchild, '24 Professor of English and Professor of Comparative Literature emeritus at Princeton University, where he taught for forty years before retiring in 2006. Fleming graduated from Sewanee (the University of the South) in 1958, before spending three years in Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. After taking his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1963, he taught for two years at the University of Wisconsin (Madison). He has published widely in the fields of medieval literature, art history, and religious history. As a teacher he was particularly well-known for his unusual course in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. In retirement he has begun to publish, outside medieval studies, on subjects which he has long pursued on an amateur basis. He is a former president of the Medieval Academy of America and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He and his wife Joan, a retired Episcopal priest--whose thumb, one hopes in "up" position, is in the author photograph--are the parents of three adult children. They live in Princeton, N.J., and spend extended periods of time in Paris. Fleming is the recent recipient of a Mellon Foundation Fellowship for Emeriti Faculty (affectionately known as a Geezer Grant) which he hopes will allow him to complete a book about the religious poetry of Luis de Camões. He is actively involved in several other scholarly projects, and he is beginning a second trade book for the W. W. Norton Co., the publishers of The Anti-Communist Manifestos. There is more, including a portal to his weekly blog, at www.johnvfleming.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential and Original Guide, July 29, 2009

By 

Richard J. Schrader (Sebring, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Anti-Communist Manifestos: Four Books That Shaped the Cold War (Hardcover)

This is a brilliant analysis of the literary, philosophical, and political dimensions of four classic works. Fleming even-handedly discusses the complex political background, entering a life-or-death debate which is crucial to understanding the Cold War and its aftermath down to the present. He shows why the works should be read and re-read as literature, not just as the important historical documents they are. For example, he demonstrates why Koestler's "Darkness at Noon" is justly held to be one of the greatest novels of the Twentieth Century, and his placing it in context, during the ascendancy of Hitler and Stalin, is almost as fascinating as the breathtaking story within the novel. Throughout, Fleming writes with an entertaining and witty style that will engage any reader. I recommend it enthusiastically.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Reading for Anyone Interested in the Cold War, August 25, 2009

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Terry Vance (Westport, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Anti-Communist Manifestos: Four Books That Shaped the Cold War (Hardcover)

"The Anti-Communist Manifestos" is a brilliant, masterfully written cultural history about four books, all bestsellers in their day, which shaped the West's understanding of Stalinism and its crimes. The authors were all former Communist Party members, three of whom had worked for Soviet espionage before turning sides. Thus the authors themselves were as controversial as the books they wrote, fanning ideological debates about "facts" and "credibility" throughout the 1940s and 1950s. John Fleming's extraordinary achievement is to tell the stories of these books within the context of their public receptions while avoiding the partisan distortions which characterized the ideological debates then and even now.

Arthur Koestler's novel, "Darkness at Noon" (1941), is one of the most important books of the 20th Century, while Whittaker Chambers's memoir, "Witness" (1952), remains famous for its detail regarding the author's accusations against Alger Hiss. The other two memoirs discussed are by a former thug / "organizer" of the German Communist Party, "Jan Valtin" (Richard Krebs), and by Victor Kravchenko, the first Soviet official to defect to the United States. Valtin's "Out of the Night" (1941) detailed the growth of the German Communist Party in the 20's and its destruction following the Nazi's seizure of power in the 1930's, along with lurid personal stories involving sex and violence. Kravchenko's "I Chose Freedom" (1946) triggered a pair of libel suits in France, which led to survivors of Stalin's slave labor camps testifying in open court. It was their testimony, that of the living victims of Stalinism, which became impossible to deny.

"The Anti-Communist Manifestos" successfully navigates through history, literature, and politics, and a reader opening to any random page is likely to become immediately engrossed. I personally enjoyed the elegance of Fleming's comments on memoir, that "subjective objective" form of writing, and his persuasive argument that "Witness" has a literary importance that has been overlooked by those whose interests have been limited to the factual.

Easy to understand why historians Tony Judt and Sean Wilentz have praised this book so enthusiastically.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific recreation of the beginnings of the literary cold war, December 8, 2009

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spotchboy (Fairport, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Anti-Communist Manifestos: Four Books That Shaped the Cold War (Hardcover)

This is a superbly researched and well-written book. At this date it's hard to believe so many otherwise intelligent people were taken in by massive evil that was communism, but Fleming vividly recreates a very interesting slice of history, allowing the reader to see how so many were duped, thus making these four books so necessary and important. Bravo.