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Michael Parenti

Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism Paperback – June 1, 1997

by Michael Parenti (Author)

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A bold and entertaining exploration of the epic struggles of yesterday and today.

Blackshirts & Reds explores some of the big issues of our time: fascism, capitalism, communism, revolution, democracy, and ecology. These terms are often bandied about, but seldom explored in the original and exciting way that has become Michael Parenti's trademark.

Parenti shows how "rational fascism" renders service to capitalism, how corporate power undermines democracy, and how revolutions are a mass empowerment against the forces of exploitative privilege. He also maps out the external and internal forces that destroyed communism, and the disastrous impact of the "free-market" victory on eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He affirms the relevance of taboo ideologies like Marxism, demonstrating the importance of class analysis in understanding political realities and dealing with the ongoing collision between ecology and global corporatism.

Written with lucid and compelling style, this book goes beyond truncated modes of thought, inviting us to entertain iconoclastic views, and to ask why things are as they are.

"A penetrating and persuasive writer with an astonishing array of documentation to implement his attacks." —The Catholic Journalist

"By portraying the struggle between fascism and Communism in this century as a single conflict, and not a series of discrete encounters, between the insatiable need for new capital on the one hand and the survival of a system under siege on the other, Parenti defines fascism as the weapon of capitalism, not simply an extreme form of it. Fascism is not an aberration, he points out, but a 'rational' and integral component of the system."—Stan Goff, author of Full Spectrum Disorder: The Military in the New American Century

Michael Parenti, PhD Yale, is an internationally known author and lecturer. He is one of the nation's leading progressive political analysts. Author of over 275 published articles and twenty books, his writings are published in popular periodicals, scholarly journals, and his op-ed pieces have been in leading newspapers such as The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. His informative and entertaining books and talks have reached a wide range of audiences in North America and abroad.

Print length

165 pages
Language

English
Publisher

City Lights Publishers
Publication date

June 1, 1997
Dimensions

5.6 x 0.5 x 8.1 inches
ISBN-10

0872863298
ISBN-13

978-0872863293
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Parenti, PhD Yale, is an internationally known author and lecturer. He is one of the nation's leading progressive political analysts. He is the author of over 250 published articles and seventeen books. His writings are published in popular periodicals, scholarly journals, and his op-ed pieces have been in leading newspapers such as the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. His informative and entertaining books and talks have reached a wide range of audiences in North America and abroad.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ City Lights Publishers; First Printing, Notations edition (June 1, 1997)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 165 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0872863298
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0872863293
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 0.5 x 8.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #23,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #18 in Fascism (Books)
- #25 in European Politics Books
- #36 in Communism & Socialism (Books)

Customer Reviews:
374 ratings

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Michael Parenti
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Michael Parenti (Berkeley, CA) is the acclaimed author of more than twenty books, including, most recently, Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader; The Assassination of Julius Caesar; and The Culture Struggle. The New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books, Harper's, The Nation, and Antioch Review, are among the countless publications that have praised Parenti's work. For further information, visit his Web site: michaelparenti.org
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Customer reviews

5 star		88%
4 star		8%
3 star		2%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Clear Lake Man

Makes you think

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2019

Verified Purchase

Don't fully agree with some of the author's premises but it makes you think and go beyond the political slogans and sound bites of the ruling political class. If you don't belong to their class chances are they aren't all that interested in you.

24 people found this helpful

Helpful

Michael Willman

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2018

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Every socialist should read this book 10 times over.

30 people found this helpful

Helpful

Janet C.

Excellent and readable

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2017

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Most Americans don't understand the fundamental differences between socialism and fascism. This highly readable book provides answers to the common mistakes people make when trying to compare the two systems. Highly recommended!

33 people found this helpful

Helpful

G

I’ll read this book again and again.

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2018

Verified Purchase

The same friend that recommended I read this book said, “Parenti is good for learning a lot of socialist history on a large scale.” I couldn’t put it down, and I can’t wait to buy more.

28 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Good

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

This book is the scarer of all Ultras and liberals!

17 people found this helpful

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Matthew Dolezal

An crucial and relevant analysis

Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2020

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This concise book provides a lucid analysis of many of the 20th century's great themes - capitalism, communism, and fascism. Parenti's work is especially valuable today, as we see a rise in right-wing populism, ubiquitous bipartisan austerity, and historic levels of wealth concentration.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Philémon Esunga

Written in the 20th Century, still applies over 20 years later!!

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2021

Verified Purchase

Dr. Michael Parenti questions the academic Orthodoxy concerning fascism, communism, capitalism, and it's relations the 20th century. Dr. Parenti debunks most claims that link communism to fascism, that capitalism equals democracy, how the Western imperialists sponsor fascism with it's tendencies, and how communism was there to always combat these reactionary forces. It explores violence, anti-Sovietism, state-sponsored terrorism, and other themes worth explaining. If we do not hed the learnings of such literature, we are doomed to repeat its cruel past.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

C. Penzone

Maybe a nice collection of articles, not a good book

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2021

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Hard to call this a book. It has chapters with different titles but they all basically meander into the same arguments and generally fail to stick close to the chapter title. There’s no progression here, there’s no story or even stories aside from the occasional historical snippet.

6 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Dzerzhinsky

An excellent expose of Fascism by Michael Parenti

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2019

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Dr Parenti in his erudite style chronicles fascism's relationship with Capitalism. Parenti is correct and precise in his critique of 'left' anti-communists, their role in advancing fascism's goals plus their contemporary role as gatekeepers.

Highly recommended!

Five stars!

5 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

parenti debunks the myths surrounding the Soviet system

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

A good, well balanced Marxist analysis of the history as well as historiography of socialism. Well put together and broad range of sources. Overall a good introductory read.

5 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Shows how class is relevant to the interpretation of history.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 13, 2021

Verified Purchase

Insightful and gives concrete explanations on fascism, capitalism and communism. Great compact read.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2018

Verified Purchase

Must read

3 people found this helpful

Srecko Vojvodic

Excellent and precious

Reviewed in Canada on December 25, 2012

Verified Purchase

For thinkers, and especially actors of the class struggle this is an essential reading. It is beautifully written and contains a lot of precious data and thoughts. The downside of the reading is the language used: the book is written for the US readership and hence its language is, to a high degree, conventional for this audience: socialist countries are called communist nations, bourgeois social sciences are called conventional social sciences, imperialist blocks are called West, etc. Anyway, very high value of the text exceeds, by far, occasional inconveniences of the reading.

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Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism Paperback – June 1, 1997

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