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461 reviews for:
Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism
Michael Parenti
4.38 AVERAGE
461 reviews for:
Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism
Michael Parenti
4.38 AVERAGE
dark
informative
medium-paced
I appreciate the history of fascism post-WWII, and the insistence on class struggle
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
fast-paced
I borrowed this book from my online library, and loved it so much I had to buy it.
The author clearly delineates the difference between Communism and Fascism, and how the US government, allied with the media, helped Fascism while demonizing Communism. And the consequences for the people under each regime. Enlightening. Essential
The author clearly delineates the difference between Communism and Fascism, and how the US government, allied with the media, helped Fascism while demonizing Communism. And the consequences for the people under each regime. Enlightening. Essential
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
informative
medium-paced
Excellent read on how communism became "so scary". It's super approachable for people who are just starting to read political idealogy.
I really liked how he got into what the harsh realities of post-communist countries looked like. Super informative and would recommend to anyone.
I really liked how he got into what the harsh realities of post-communist countries looked like. Super informative and would recommend to anyone.
A little cursory in its explanation of Marxism near the end of the book. Where it really shines is the detailed descriptions of how the US has had their hand in fascism and Nazism since before they fully tried to conquer the world. Then after that all the retconning to to instill anti-Soviet and anti-communist ideologies even to a leftist population. Essentially the start of the Red Scare. I really enjoyed the chapters discussing the harsh life in post-Communist countries like Poland, Bulgaria and Russia due to the opening of private industries and the free market. There’s plenty of people who bemoan how their parents or grandparents had to live in hell due to communism without considering how their country got to that place. More often than not, it’s due to private corporations enacting extremely exploitative practices and rolling back any social safety nets that the Communist state have them. I’d love to read a more thorough book about that.
Never too dogmatic in its thinking but Parenti tends to overgeneralize points where more care could have been put in, it felt like for the sake of a shorter page count he mushes a lot of ideas together. Still it’s a good introductory text to dismantling a lot of chud talking points and anti-Communist propaganda.
Never too dogmatic in its thinking but Parenti tends to overgeneralize points where more care could have been put in, it felt like for the sake of a shorter page count he mushes a lot of ideas together. Still it’s a good introductory text to dismantling a lot of chud talking points and anti-Communist propaganda.
informative
medium-paced
Read several books on this topic but this is the first that explained how they regret the switch from communism to capitalism
challenging
informative
medium-paced
It was really quite shocking to see how many direct parallels can be drawn to the decline of the Nazis, and the collapse of the USSR and the authoritarian system that has replaced it, to the current, apparently collapsing of the democratic process in the US (2025). This book is pretty easy to engage with, and avoids, for the most part, becoming intellectually elitist, so it is not as alienating as many other sources that approach similar topics can be. Definitely an interesting, relevant, and important book to read for anyone interested in engaging/resisting oligarchical capitalist and authoritarian attempts to privatize and thus cut the rest of us off from any real power or control over our lives under the illusion of prescribed “freedoms” to participate in the labor side of capitalism.