Is Communism Dead Forever? [Paperback]

James K. McCollum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 22, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0761812601 | ISBN-13: 978-0761812609

Is Communism Dead Forever? deals with the problems of transition in former communist countries from dictatorship and command economies to democracy and free market economies, recognizing the potential for a return to communism in many of the newly independent states, including the privatization of former state owned enterprises, along with the difficulty of changing the mentality of the workforce. James K. McCollum encourages the involvement of the democracies of the world in assisting with the transition from communism, so that these countries can become unthreatened democracies with free market economies.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James K. McCollum is Professor of Management in the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Alabama, Huntsville.

Product Details

• Paperback: 178 pages
• Publisher: University Press Of America (October 22, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761812601
• ISBN-13: 978-0761812609
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,557,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, semi-active in retirement by teaching short courses twice a year at the Romanian-American University in Bucharest and bringing American students to Romania in a Study Abroad program each summer since 2004. In 1991, I first came to Romania as a Fulbright Scholar and decided to try to help the country with an intern program that started in 1993. I was a Visiting Professor to the Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu, Romania in 1996, Visiting Professor in the University of Maryland Program teaching in Germany, Iceland, and Hungary in 1998, and Visiting Professor to the American University in bulgaria in 2000.
I wrote "Romania Opening all of the Doors" over a 12 year span while I was a Managment Professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Most of the book relates to the first 12 months my wife and I were in Romania: 1991-92, The later chapters describe subsequent visits in 1992-2002, such as my teaching at the Black Sea University in the summers of 1993, 94, & 95, my recruitment of Romanian management interns in 1993, 94, & 95, the interns experiences in America in 1994, 95, & 96, our intern reunions in 1997, 2000, & 2002, and political changes in Romania during the 12 years. I have successfully used this book as an introduction to Romania for Study Abroad students who were going to Romania. The students have universally said the book was very helpful to them.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent ! The steps and mis-steps, communist to capitalist, February 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Is Communism Dead Forever? (Paperback)

This book provides a graphic description of a crumbling communist power and the stumbling steps toward capitalism that followed. The detailed descriptions of real people and their lives under both old and new regimes keeps the reading interesting. If you've ever wondered why, now that communism is dead these countries can't just pick up the pieces and move on you should read this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Question Title, an Answers Book, March 24, 1999

By 

Dorin Scheianu [e-mail] (Huntsville, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Is Communism Dead Forever? (Hardcover)

An extraordinary book, that can make all of us to think deeper to what we can do that things like those not to happen again... A book that could be written only by someone who lived in the free world and spent enough time in the now-in-transition countries, to understand exactly what happened there and what could be done to help these countries. It is very difficult for people from there to find by themselves the answers to their questions, and it is difficult also for somebody who didn't live there to understand how communism changed the people's minds. This book has exactly these answers, presented in an elegant manner and in an easy to understand way, by study cases. And the question from title has not an easy answer. I lived there, I didn't like communism and so almost all of the population, but this still existed for 45 years. The communism destroyed any knowledge or instinct of freedom and made the people to be afraid of major changes until 1989, when the contradictions grew so much that erupted in a popular riot, there where the governance was so blind to accept any change - Romania. And now, those people discovered the values of free market and democracy, but they have also to learn again the rules of the game. The book helped me to understand this and to see what it could be done many years ago, when very few of us had the courage to predict these events. I recommend this book to everybody, both for study and personal knowledge.