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Summary: The catologue of crimes and what it says about us...
Review: For many years, having a sense of the tradgedy that took its toll in eastern Europe and reading the editorial pages of this countries many dailies, It was a wonder to me how such rapaciousness and villiany could have come into being and been apologized for. Did I come away with a clearer understanding of this moral tradgedy and how its causes were championed? NO! However it has heightened my awareness that something has gone tragically wrong in the moral centeredness of the West. Perhaps it is easier to understand the cause and effect of this tradgedy, its implementation, and internal maintenance, ie. the repressions, the murders, the mass deportations of entire ethnic populations than to understand the aid and comfort given it by many members of what to date has been the grandest experiment in huyman liberty. Perhaps it isn't to be found in a catalogue of this nature but in the many fine works of repentant red diaper babies and ex-communists. As David Horowitz has said, " The idea of 'the people' is more important than the people themselves." This is the notion that makes possible the understanding that "tranforming" society was nothing more than code for wrecking society, hauling it up root and branch rather than carefully cultivating it. Whereas one calls for pruning the other calls for laying down new furrows in which to plant its murderous seeds. Also I would recommend on this this topic: "Harvest of Sorrow" by Robert Conquest "Witness" and "Ghosts on the Roof" by Whittaker Chambers "Destructive Generation", "The Politics of Bad Faith", "Radical Son" and "Hating Whitey" by David Horowitz also there are many fine books being published now that delve into the conspiracy that was Communism.
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Summary: At Last an Indictment of the Most Murderous Theology Ever
Review: The dumbest thing you will ever hear a member of the Birkenstock Left say about Communism is that it was a good idea badly implemented. Rather than commit an immediate and warranted act of violence to knock some sense into anyone silly and naive enough to promote such nonsense, give them this book. The Black Book of Communism lays bare the truth behind this murderous theology and shows that, contrary to the assertion above, Communism has left a trail of murder and deceit wherever it has taken root. There are those who claim that Lenin was a great man who simply lost control of the Revolution he started. Explain then the numerous examples of his bloodthirsty orders. My personal favorite is when he calls for the hanging of the kulaks in a tone so mild-mannered you'd think he was asking his babushka to save him some sugar beets. The banality of evil, indeed. While a large portion of the book is rightly devoted to the Bolsheviks (including an amazing account of Russian Civil War atrocities), you'll also find detailed accounts of Communism in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Latin America, and Africa. This is by far the most comprehensive and detailed account of Communism's global terror yet produced and demonstrates conclusively that the Communist ideal IS the problem, not errors in its execution. Aside from providing numerous, detailed examples of Communist atrocities, this book raises a number of disturbing questions. Why do so many persist in following this atheistic religion with such single-minded fervor, even in the U.S. and Europe? Why does the West continue to deny that Communism, not Fascism, is the most murderous ideology yet created by Man (having caused over 100 million deaths worldwide, according to the authors)? Why did it take so long for this book to be written? Once you crack the cover on this masterful work, you will be utterly enthralled (and likely outraged) by the unfolding narrative. While the book is huge, most readers will find it a quick read and well worth the time invested. I dare anyone to read this and emerge with any respect for the Communists or their fellow travellers. Even the casual reader will walk away with a deeper appreciation for the suffering inflicted by this warped creed, as well as sincere gratitude to the men and women who risked life and liberty to destroy it.
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Summary: And there you are!
Review: If you'd like a complete explanation of how someone from Australia could read a book documenting the state execution of 100,000,000 people by a political movement and still think the movement is progressive, please buy this book.
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Summary: The "Workers' Paradise" exploded.
Review: As a Russian language student who spent two years working and studying in the former Soviet Union just before its collapse, I heard a good number of grisly accounts from working class Soviet citizens detailing the horrors that their government had inflicted upon them and their parents, including torture, imprisonment, execution, and even commitment to madhouses for such "diseases" as believing in God. Nevertheless, coming from an American educational establishment that had for decades treated Communism with kid gloves, I couldn't help but wonder if my Soviet friends had been exaggerating a little bit. Now, ten years later, this amazing book demonstrates just how abominable Communism really was, just how brutal, just how rapacious, and just how WRONG, the delusions of its comfortable Western apologists notwithstanding.
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Summary: A valuable antidote
Review: Humanities departments, both in American and Australian universities, have succumbed to left wing toxins. Thus, the kind of information presented in the Black Book of Communism is of tremendous value. It is here one learns the things that are not taught in universities. I heartily recomend it to anyone who wants an alternative view to the official line of the slackademic elite.
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Summary: An Indictment Long Overdue
Review: I now finally have an atrocity encyclopedia to hurl at my liberal colleagues, and it even weighs several pounds. Courtois et al. very convincingly tally and document the horrors of communism. Now when I compare what Pol Pot did to Cambodia with what the Black Plague did to Europe, I'll have a better reference than scattered articles. The sections on the PRC and Asian communism are especially illuminating. By the way, the word is spelled "eurocentric."
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Summary: Same coin, different side
Review: When the horrors of Nazi Germany were revealed to the world, the Left immediately began to pump their greatest propaganda campaign of all time: That the German model of socialism and the Soviet model of socialism were diametrically opposed and opposite systems. How far from the truth. The few that have read Ludwig von Mises, the brilliant Austrian economist, know the facts about socialism: Communism and Nazism are only different forms of socialism. So then, in this light, this book is correct in saying that communism is as bad as Nazism. What it fails to say is that they are essentially the same, in that, both attempt to destroy individual identity, both take control of all property, both police speech and ideas, and that both systems use class or race warfare and murder on a vast scale. After individual identity, property, speech, ideas, one's race or class and one's life, what's left to control? Well, nothing. For all practical purposes, the Nazis and the commies are essentially the same. Moreover, Hitler came into power promising equality, preaching egalitarianism, and proposing retaliation against the 'greedy business class,' many of which were Jews. This book of 800 pages contains page after page of numbers; mostly body counts, prisoner counts, etc, 800 pages of horror. Think about it: 800 x 125,000. One page for every 125,000 human beings murdered for the sake of a horrible idea, an idea stemming from and appealing to envious minds. Read ENVY: A THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR by Schoeck and also HUMAN ACTION and SOCIALISM by von Mises. Hopefully, this book will rock the world. Get it, read it, understand it.
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Summary: An oasis in the desert of "progressive" nonsense
Review: The depth of this tome has already been illustrated by other reviewers. I find no need to go deeper. However, the fact that there is an absence of leftist knee-jerk reactions to this book further illustrates this book's power.
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Summary: Good for academic use, if academia will accept it
Review: First, understand that this is not a popular or literary work, but an accounting ledger of the casualties of 20th century communism. Once you understand that this is not _Darkness At Noon_ or _Dr. Zhivago_, you can accept it and its horrifyingly high numbers as intended. The authors have taken advantage of the opened KGB archives to track down the details of hundreds of repressions and atrocities committed by the Soviet power in the name of their ideology. They do the same for other communist regimes like Cuba and China without the benefit of archival materials. The fact that they still have to round the death tolls to the nearest thousand in many cases firmly makes the authors' controversial point: Communism is the most murderous idea ever devised. One of the authors asserts that communism is not one whit a lesser evil than nazism. It lasted longer, immiserated and killed more people, and had more friends in influential western institutions, no matter that the repressions and killings were class-based rather than race-based. The book has two generous photo-inserts, to make the text's point more immediately. The arrival of this book, along with _Venona_, _The Haunted Wood_, and _The Shield and The Sword_, gives heartening evidence that the murderous truth about the Communist era may finally seep into the general consciousness, if not yet into the politically correct recesses of tenured radicaldom. Here are the facts--hereafter, ignorance about communism is strictly voluntary.
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Summary: Important
Review: Anyone who harbors delusions that communism/socialism, if only applied correctly, would solve all ills, should read this book. In every instance communism/socialism results in the gulag and extermination camps. I heard Kurt Vonnegut speak at U.C. Irvine a few years ago, and he said, "communism is a good system, it just happens that in the Soviet Union, the system was run by a bunch of crooks." Vonnegut--whose books are published by a capitalist conglomerate--is a first-rate novelist, but I hope he reads this book, and gets it through his head that the communist SYSTEM ITSELF is what is rotten. This book wears on the soul after a bit, because SO MUCH death and torture and incarcertation resulted in all communist systems. But one should feel a bit worn down when reading this book, because it means you are feeling the impact of what millions upon millions have suffered.
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