Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Communism

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book to its credit generally gave a good overview of the history of Communism, however, it had two major shortcommings. The first was its obvious USA centrism which was well displayed in a summary towards the end of the book refering to US deaths in Vietnam without mentioning the Vietnamese deaths (are we to think US lives are more important than Vietnamese?). Additionally, the Complete Idiots Guide to Communism asserts that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (the incident that set the official pretext for US involvement into the US/Vietnam conflict) was factually when it is generally agreed (even by the CIA) that this incident was stagged by the US military.

Secondly in the initial pages of the book it asserts that no communist or socialist government has ever gained power by means other than violent overthrough. This is plainly wrong. For such proof we need look no further than the election of Salvador Allende in Chille (susequenbtly killed by a US backed, right-wing military coup), or the recent democratic election of Hugo Charvez in Venezuela (admittedly, this may have happened after the books publication). If one cared to look through the history of socialist governments I am sure more examples could be found.

Carlisle does it again. This is a great work that should be read by all. Ignore the Monday morning quarterbacks that get upset when their (Australian) perceptions about Communism are not presented. This is an "easy in / easy out" guide that is truly enjoyable to read.

This book discusses, in a general way, Communism and its place in the 20th century. As such, it does a very good job, giving the reader an idea of who was who, the relevence of certain ideas, historical context, etc.
There were only two things that I felt took away from this book. One, the addition of a beginning chapter on pre-Revolutionary communes, mostly those of the United States. With the exception of the Paris Commune, these have no place in the rather narrow intellectual universe that marxists inhabit. The second thing that I felt kept this from being a truly great book (given its scope) was the fact that, unlike other "Idiot" books, this one did not have caricatures for the asides. I thought Marx, Lenin, and Stalin would have been great as cartoons explaining different aspects of communism.

Ok, some reviewers here call the book basic and basic it may be, but I needed basic especially after years of more complex books that failed to sum up communism for me. This book took the philosophy of communism and its origins to the actual implementation of it. I would love to see an updated version complete with the new evolving China, Vietnam with strengthening economies. I would also be interested in coverage on the rise of communist movements in Venezula and Bolivia coupled with Maoist movements in Nepal and Bhutan.

Overall I was fairly disappointed with this book. I was bothered by the American centrism, but was much more annoyed with all the subtle historical slights that turn what might otherwise have been a decent historical summary into a biased work that has a clear agenda and doesn't seriously consider alternatives to it.

This Idiots guide was my biggest dissapointment. I really wanted it to break down the communist manifesto and explain it but it didn't. Wouldn't really recommend it.

As a teacher, I am scandalized to see how little my students know about communism. I'm not judging them--I was young once, as well, and I was concerned with girls far more than with political ideologies. I do wish, however, that our high schools would make it clearer to the students what communism was, what it did, and how destructive it was. In any case, this book is an awesomely well-organized treatment of the ideology and history of communism. I have read it twice and find it to be incredibly clear and informative. We all have an obligation to understand the single most important political ideology of the entire twentieth century. Without such knowledge, we simply cannot understand the modern world. Read this amazing book!