To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism

ISBN: 1541601963

Author: McMeekin, Sean

Condition: New

From an award-winning historian, a new global history of Communism.With vivid prose, McMeekin punctures many myths of communism This is history as a warning. -Washington ExaminerWinner of the Hayek Book PrizeWhen the USSR collapsed in 1991, the world was certain that Communism was dead. Today, three decades later, it is clear that it was not. While Russia may no longer be Communist, Communism and sympathy for Communist ideas have proliferated across the globe.In To Overthrow the World, Sean McMeekin investigates the evolution of Communism from a seductive ideal of a classless society into the ruling doctrine of tyrannical regimes. Tracing Communisms ascent from theory to practice, McMeekin ranges from Karl Marxs writings to the rise and fall of the USSR under Stalin to Maos rise to power in China to the acceleration of Communist or Communist-inspired policies around the world in the twenty-first century. McMeekin argues, however, that despite the endurance of Communism, it remains deeply unpopular as a political form. Where it has arisen, it has always arisen by force.Blending historical narrative with cutting-edge scholarship, To Overthrow the World revolutionizes our understanding of the evolution of Communism-an idea that seemingly cannot die.