From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist Paperback – January 15, 2005

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.

Bob Avakian has a style of writing that reads as if he is talking to you and you alone. I remember reading some articles by Cannonball Adderley and feeling his writing reflected the way he played the saxophone. I get this sense of urgency with Avakian! And his politics are spot on! He has not stepped back or watered his politics. While other so-called revolutionaries IE Mike Klonskey and his mentor label Bergman gave up the struggle. Bob Avakian has not. As he said "Revolutionaries are Revolutionary and Should be supported!" So do that buy this book!

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 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.

Top drawer!!!

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.