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From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist

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The importance of critical thinking is an important theme of "From Ike to Mao and Beyond." This approach influenced Bob Avakian's development in the transformation he went through as an individual. He was going along with his life, with a middle class background, and then he began to change.

There were 3 main themes that influenced his life: communism, socialism, and the civil rights movement (that caused Avakian to critically assess the differences between true human rights and those countenanced by the forces of familial and popular social custom).

Bob Avakian's lived experiences illuminate situations that one can learn from: not readily accepting whatever one is told or observes others doing, but questioning such practices. Does one want a better quality versus more quantity out of life? Should simple human dignity not be at the forefront of this demand for a better quality of life? Avakian's book illuminates how one individual learned to want more out of life - did not know how to get it - and eventually found a way to have it.

One example of Bob Avakian looking for the truth was described in the book when Kennedy made a speech during the Cuban Missile Crisis incident in Cuba. He said the U.N. charter forbade the Soviet Union from having missiles in Cuba. Bob Avakian went to look up the U.N. Charter, read it several times and found out he had been lied to.

As a professor, I want my students to be critical thinkers and question lies masked as concerns for the "common good." In order to become critical thinkers, I believe that my students must be exposed to all - and I mean all - opinions regardless of the issue. This book can open people up to an approach of how to look at things with a critical eye: be self-reflexive and examine the footprints that the mere practice of one's own culture might leave upon others, and ask and answer truthfully, whether or not this is the impression that one seeks to leave.

My mom who is from the South has commented that growing up there you understood where you stood because people would just come out and say what they thought. People like George Wallace (an extremely racist former Governor of Alabama) would just outright say he thought Blacks were inferior. Whereas in the North there would be a covering up of how people thought. I have experienced the latter myself in California.

During the Civil rights period, people felt deeply that there needed to be a change and they were willing to do something about it. They had to "step outside of the box" and be willing to go out and dare to struggle for something different with different people. They did not know the outcome of what would happen if they did this. That is what is needed today. People need to take risks and not accept what's going on, especially where the common good is concerned. Bob Avakian did this with his life. He was looking for the truth and he has pursued that, not knowing where that would lead him, taking risks.

I was talking to a friend about the memoir, and my friend said, "Dude. This is communism you're talking about." I said, "Look into it. Did you ever read the Communist Manifesto? Communism on paper is a beautiful thing, just like capitalism;however, what the sleeze that people engage in in practice tells more about the problems of the system than the system itself. Just because things happened in Russia or China that weren't good, you shouldn't reject it. Is there not a capitalist counterpart? Capitalism has very wealthy people, a middle class, but a lot of people are two paychecks away from poverty. Under capitalism there are a few people who hoard all the wealth and incredible numbers of homeless." After this back and forth, my friend is now reading the book. I believe people can get drawn into the story from a humanistic approach (regardless of whether or not they are communist).

If you go through Bob's story, you get to see how he came to discover socialism and communism, and how the positives of these systems that might benefit people in this country in practice; hence encouraging the creation of new humanistic models for the improvement on life for all Americans. The students need to read this. While they may not agree with Avakian's politics - and it is not written anywhere that they have to - they may agree with the humanity that Avakian found by questioning and sifting through the hidden evils of unexamined social custom.

I have just finished reading this book and wow, what a wild,exciting trip it has been. However, more important than that, this book breaks through a lot of the mechanical stereotypes of what Communists are and explodes the myth that Communism is dead. You laugh, cry , get angry and just go through a whole range of emotions in reading this book. Bob writes in a manner that is approachable to many people from all walks of life who are wondering how can we take on this monstrous system that we live under and win and bring forth an exciting new world. Yet, he does not condescend nor water down what his message is. This book is a must read for anyone who is looking for a way to change the world.

From Ike To Mao and Beyond is the memoir of a long distance runner whose disillusionment with imperialism, racism, and capitalism led him from his mainstream American background to embrace the ideals of revolutionary communism. In the mid-1980's he dared to write a book with the provocative title, "Democracy: Can't We Do Better Than That?" Now, well after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he critically analyzes the flaws of modern democracy - flaws that divide society into classes and allow the upper classes to wield disproportionate power - and questions the blind refutation of a more egalitarian socialist system. A window into transparent injustice and one person's true-life determination to search for a better path, despite the scorn of the society around him.

The writing style is easy to read, yet it is also very deep, the way he brings in the broader world that is affecting his development as a youth, the way he deals with his life-threatening illness (spoiler - he doesn't turn to God), and the entire last third of the book where he lays out his becoming a revolutionary, including his serious questions about communism and how people argued with him. It really shows a development of a human being and a Revolutionary Party.
As a second note, I've never seen a Memior that is quite so, well, personal, as some of the things he includes in his life most people would dismiss or not admit too, yet they all add up to his whole appraoch to life. And some of the things which he makes note of are really quite funny!

"Bob Avakian is a long distance runner in the freedom struggle against imperialism, racism and capitalism. His voice and witness are indispensable in our efforts to enhance the wretched of the earth. And his powerful story of commitment is timely."

Cornel West, Class of 1943 University Professor of Religion, Princeton University

The first 95 pages of this book should have been condensed into a few concise paragraphs. The author delves into excruciating detail about his childhood, which was neither traumatic nor unusual, although attending an integrated YMCA summer camp influenced his future life in a significant way.


The rest of the book is far more interesting. While I do not agree with Bob Avakian's political views, I admire him greatly. Other sixties so-called radicals and left-wingers either descended into acts of violence to make their point, or they sold out in the 1970's and became the exact same replica of all they'd claimed to despise in the 1960's.

Avakian has stayed true to his cause. He believes passionately in revolutionary Communism, and even though I don't, I respect him for the way that he has walked the walk and talked the talk, and in the end, that's the best kind of life to have lived. The world is a far better place as a result of people like Bob Avakian, men with the courage to stand up for what they believe in, rather than just going along to get along.

This is an interesting autobiography of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA's self "exiled" chairman, Bob Avakian. The personal stuff is actually very interesting - I enjoyed reading about his personal life before his rise to far left celebrityhood.

The political stuff is interesting too - unlike most of Avakian's official political writing, he actually explains HOW the RCP came to hold various political views.

Still, this is very much an "official history" so a lot is left out.

Also, it appears that the RCP actually edited the words of their great Chairman - which is the only reason this book is readable (the rest of Avakian's body of work is long winded and boring).

I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this book - but if you must read one book by Bob Avakian, let it be this one.

i remember when i was in high school i read the autobiography of malcolm x and it completely changed my life. a few years later i was lucky enough to get my hands on this memoir by bob avakian and i can say the effect was even greater than that. the point is that anyone who wants to change the world, and sees and feels all the injustices going on and wants to stop them, you have to learn about this revolutionary leader, and this is a great way to get to know who bob avakian is as a person and as a revolutionary leader.

Bob Avakian's memoir has its moments, but they are all at the beginning before Avakian is twisted into accepting Maoist Communism.

The author, still a revolutionary Communist today (who really thinks a revolution is going to happen), accepts a brand of Marxism known as "Maoism" for its complete adherence to the thoughts of Mao Tse-Tung.

The memoir tracks his thinking from, as the title suggests, "Ike to Mao." It may be hard to believe there are people who think Mao was a great man - but here is one.

Avakian comes across in his writings on "racism" as a racist himself. Bottom line: he hates white people. Yet, Avakian himself is white! His philosophy can be summed up pretty simply, take the bottom-feeders of society who live off handouts from the government (the same government Avakian seems to hate so much) and twist their thinking into accepting a bizarre, cultish Communist organization. He likes to be called their "Chairman"....sound familiar?

Like I said, the book has its moments at the beginning and slowly degrades into a long explanation as to how he became a Maoist Communist with beliefs that most will have a hard time believing are still even around today.

I rate this a 1 for promoting silly ideas that most of us outgrow by age 19 or so. This book is the life of an aging hippie who never grew up and clings to the ideas of the Black Panthers of the sixties, a group which he praises and thinks is wonderful.

I'll give the first couple of chapters a 3. Some of it was interesting. But the rest is just plain weird from the "Chairman" of The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.