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Post by LegalEyes on Aug 30, 2014 0:58:10 GMT -6
Has anyone read this? It's an older book...written in the '50s. I'm really enjoying it; fascinating information and overview of the birth and history of communism from Marx/Engels and onward.
There is a follow-up book also, which I've also Kindled and plan to read.
Pistol, I'm particularly wondering if you've read this/these? Thoughts?
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Post by Pistolenschutzen on Aug 30, 2014 9:55:29 GMT -6
Has anyone read this? It's an older book...written in the '50s. I'm really enjoying it; fascinating information and overview of the birth and history of communism from Marx/Engels and onward.
There is a follow-up book also, which I've also Kindled and plan to read.
Pistol, I'm particularly wondering if you've read this/these? Thoughts?
No, I don't recall reading those you named, LE, though I have read several others on the same subject published in the same period. Always be a bit skeptical about political treatises you read coming from the 1950s era though. A great deal of that material was Cold War propaganda and highly exaggerated and biased. Many of the writers of that period seemed to believe there was a Commie under everyone's bed, all planning to stage a coup d'etat at any moment. Certainly, there was some valid basis to the fears of Communist infiltration into the US, but much of that fear was vastly overstated as history has shown.
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Post by LegalEyes on Aug 30, 2014 16:47:26 GMT -6
Good points, Pistol. I don't know if you're interested enough in this particular book to peruse it online or read the critiques of it, but I would be curious to hear your thoughts if you did so. I don't have enough hours in the day to devote to the weeding out of honest historical works vs. propaganda, so your suggested readings would interest me since you have studied the topic much more in depth than I can.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2014 15:11:50 GMT -6
Reading about communism? Good for you. Open mind and a sense of humour, you will need them both...
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Post by Pistolenschutzen on Aug 31, 2014 15:40:59 GMT -6
Reading about communism? Good for you. Open mind and a sense of humour, you will need them both... True, Tranter. Another characteristic that is quite useful when trying to understand communist ideology is the ability to think logically. If one simply applies logic to the nonsensical ideas in such works as Das Capital and The Communist Manifesto, it becomes very quickly apparent that what Marx and Engels were proposing makes no logical sense at all, and that the whole scheme of communism presupposes that humanity possesses characteristics that it simply doesn't have. It assumes, for example, that humans are like ants or termites, i.e., genetically encoded to see themselves as nothing more than the cogs in a massive, all consuming machine without any hint of individuality or self-interest at all. That is simply not true.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2014 1:37:32 GMT -6
Indeed so Pistol, it seems to me communism fails to recognise that most important factor, the individuality of the the individual. Perhaps I haven't said that very well, I mean each of us are different in so many ways.
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Post by LegalEyes on Sept 15, 2014 10:39:27 GMT -6
I have read more than half of the book now (slow and intermittent reader here!) and have continued to find it fascinating. It's a good summary and analysis of significant events, I think. I just finished reading about Batista and Castro....what a sad mess!! I really do recommend the book.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2014 13:55:37 GMT -6
I have read more than half of the book now (slow and intermittent reader here!) and have continued to find it fascinating. It's a good summary and analysis of significant events, I think. I just finished reading about Batista and Castro....what a sad mess!! I really do recommend the book. 'I am a slow reader myself' Spot 'House' in one of his former roles
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Post by LegalEyes on Sept 15, 2014 14:29:51 GMT -6
I have read more than half of the book now (slow and intermittent reader here!) and have continued to find it fascinating. It's a good summary and analysis of significant events, I think. I just finished reading about Batista and Castro....what a sad mess!! I really do recommend the book. 'I am a slow reader myself' Spot 'House' in one of his former roles lol...delightful...thank you!
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Post by jwrauch on Sept 19, 2014 19:04:31 GMT -6
Sounds like a book I need to read. JR
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Post by LegalEyes on Sept 25, 2014 23:56:44 GMT -6
Sounds like a book I need to read. JR Let me know if you do, jw, and what you think of it.
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