A review by ex_libris_volantes
Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism by Michael Parenti

challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

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.