The Rise and Fall of Communism
"A work of considerable delicacy and nuance....Brown has crafted a readable and judicious account of Communist history...that is both controversial and commonsensical."
--Salon.com
"Ranging wisely and lucidly across the decades and around the world, this is a splendid book."
--William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
The Rise and Fall of Communism is the definitive history from the internationally renowned Oxford authority on the subject. Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford University, Archie Brown examines the origins of the most important political ideology of the 20th century, its development in different nations, its collapse in the Soviet Union following perestroika, and its current incarnations around the globe. Fans of John Lewis Gaddis, Samuel Huntington, and avid students of history will appreciate the sweep and insight of this epic and astonishing work.
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Archie Brown is Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford University. With The Rise and Fall of Communism, he has won the W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize of the Political Studies Association of the UK for best political science book of the year for a second time. He also received that award for one of his earlier books, The Gorbachev Factor. He lives in England.
"This book requires and deserves space on all important book shelves for decades to come."--Gary Hart, United States Senator (Ret.)
"Readable and judicious...both controversial and commonsensical...'The Rise and Fall of Communism' is a work of considerable delicacy and nuance."--Salon.com
"A sweeping, engrossing history. . . . Brown does a fine job of describing the social and political conditions that led people to embrace communism. And how, when the charms of the system wore off, these people found themselves ensnared by a totalitarianism that gave them no way to opt out."--Dallas Morning News
"Condensed with information that is both well-researched and well-placed within textbook history, [Brown's] book is a rewarding read. It is an important book for the time--a sober reflection on the physical, objective results of ideological thought."--Sacramento Book Review
"For decades this volume will remain a definitive study of communism."--Literary Review (UK)
"Consistently superb"--Dwight Garner, New York Times
"A riveting and magisterial work."--Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution and author of THE GREAT EXPERIMENT
"Ranging wisely and lucidly across the decades and around the world, this is a splendid book."--William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
"[Brown's] account is studded with delightfully pertinent and pithy personal observations and anecdotes...It is easy to be polemical about communism. Mr. Brown strives to be fair-minded...As a single-volume account of mankind's biggest mistake, Mr. Brown's book is hard to beat."--The Economist
"Archie Brown's The Rise and Fall of Communsm is a rare thing, meticulously researched history that is immensely readable and, even better, a disinterested overview of the most deeply divisive topic of the past 100 years that has been highly praised by critics on the Right and Left".--Australian Nonfiction Books of the Year
