4.5 out of 5 stars
How I discovered this book: Recommendation
In a Nutshell: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and how to crush them)
A highly readable and succinct overview of the worst communist revolutions of the past few centuries, making one realise why far left overlords do their best to blank out history - otherwise, why would anyone welcome in such a regime? Because the great, just realignment of society never happens. For the common man, everything gets much, much worse. You thought you were living in a dictatorship before? At least you could work for a living, own land, come and go as you pleased....
'Nothing is clearer in history than the adoption by successful rebels of the methods they were accustomed to condemn' (The Lessons of History, Will and Ariel Durant).
Any criticism of the Chinese Communist Party was condemned as right wing extremism; academics and writers were encouraged to speak out, air their viewpoints, after which they were forced into labour camps. In Stalin's Russia, the peasants worked on the collectivised farms, but died of starvation. In Mao's China, in the state-owned farms, the workers lived in dormitories. They owned nothing but weren't very happy. Anyone who owned cooking utensils was forced to smelt them down, to feed Mao's desire to be a great steel producer. All the farming equipment, too. This policy resulted in the death of tens of millions. Peasants resorted to eating sawdust, leather and manure. Cannibalism was rife, and celebrated. Churches were completely destroyed. One would be forgiven for thinking that the aim was to create Hell on Earth.
Castro sold himself as a liberator, to a naïve population who had no idea how much worse their lives would be under his communist regime. Posobiec and Lisec write about Cambodia, about Marxist Chile, about South African apartheid. Every time, the results of the new order are the same. Those at the top become richer, and millions of ordinary people die.
I felt that the 'how to crush them' section was a little idealistic, but it's a good book and I'm glad I read it.
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