Books on Communism

There's a lot I liked in Rod Dreher's Live Not by Lies, which came out last fall and went to #7 on the NYT bestseller list. Rod sees a lot of parallels to communism in the woke Left, and it's subtitled "A Handbook for Christian Dissidents."

Rod went to Eastern Europe and interviewed many survivors of Communism, and their stories are a big part of what makes the book so interesting. I personally don't agree with everything in the book, in part because I see some of Rod's positions in the book as contrary to those in his previous (and, in my opinion, superior) book, The Benedict Option.

But Rod lives here in Baton Rouge and is someone whom I consider a personal friend, so I'm not exactly unbiased.

I would definitely find some well-researched history, and not something that includes "Christian Dissidents" in the subtitle. When a Christian doesn't understand that Christianity is the mainstream establishment in this country, you probably shouldn't listen to that Christian.

I'm sorry I don't have any actual books to recommend to you.

quote:

---

I will be interested in what you find.

---

So far I've ordered "American Marxism" by Mark Levin. Apparently its a detailed history of how communism rose in other countries and some of the things happening right here that are clear markers of communism making progress. Exactly what Im looking for.

"Real books"? Are we really going to do the snob thing here?

Let's not turn this place into the Poli Board.

THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO

I didn’t read through comments. Maybe it was mentioned.

But it’s chilling and down right horrid.

Blinkist has a short summary that actually doesn’t do that bad of a job for a long book.

Red plenty by Francis spifford

Cursed Days - Ivan Bunin
Always With Honor - Pyotr Wrangel
One Man in His Time - Sergei Obolensky

All three are primary accounts of the period.

Check out Richard Pipes, he has focused mostly on the USSR but his book on the History of the Russian Revolution is excellent

LINK

State and Revolution is probably the best thing you can read especially the newer version with a foreword explaining a lot of the historical context.

I think it’s pretty important to read some actual communist theory to understand the history behind it.

quote:

---

Communism in the form you know of it wasnt started in any previously democratic countries.

---

Communism in its current form of "cultural marxism" though is almost exclusively in previously democratic countries.