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Brzezinski, Zbigniew K. ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
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GRAND FAILURE: THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF COMMUNISM IN THE 20TH CENTURY Brzezinski, Zbigniew K.
[Washington, D.C.] Macmillan Library Reference 1989 0-684-19034-6 / 9780684190341 Hardcover
ABOUT THE BOOK Grand Failure: The Birth and Death of Communism in the 20th Century FROM THE CRITICS Publishers Weekly Communism is doomed to collapse in the foreseeable future, predicts former National Security Council director Brzezinski in this brisk polemic, an amalgam of wishful thinking and hardnosed analysis. Unlike other Western commentators who see Gorbachev's reforms as opening the door to a more permissive, economically innovative Soviet Union, Brzezinski portrays the Soviet leader as fatally trapped by the need to maintain the Communist Party's monopoly of power, while coping with economic failures, restive nationalist movements and an Eastern European bloc careening out of Moscow's control. Turning to China, the author surmises that Deng's long-term policy of socioeconomic renewal will probably prove successful, but at great cost to the ideological unity of the communist movement. Citing what he sees as socialism's repeated failures in Third World countries, Brzezinski concludes that the communist model of development is rapidly becoming one to be avoided, not imitated. 75,000 first printing; first serial to the New York Times Magazine . (Mar.) Library Journal Western analysts have long argued--and Kremlin leaders have recently acknowledged--that economic, political, and social stagnation threatens the viability of the Soviet state and the future of the Communist movement. Many writers, such as Ed Hewett in Reforming the Soviet Economy: Equality versus Efficiency ( LJ 4/15/88), have examined Soviet problems and the solutions proposed in ``perestroika," without committing to any firm predictions. In this book, Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser, looks at the history of Marxism, Leninism, and Stalinism, current Soviet problems, and the state of the global Communist movement, and argues that Gorbachev's reforms cannot revitalize a system that is in inevitable decline. Timely, understandable, and highly recommended.-- James R. Kuhlman, Miami Univ. Lib., Oxford, Ohio School Library Journal YA-- An enlightening summary of the events of the past and a likely prognosis of the future of monolithic communism. Divided into six parts, this well-documented, readable book describes Lenin's conspiracy of power to force a destruction of society by mass terrorism; consolidation of one-party rule behind a facade of intellectual and cultural openness; and the creation of a system that allowed Stalin to pulverize society and nurtured Brezhnev's party-boss corruption, economic backwardness, social stagnation, and the vested interests of totalitarian leaders Brzezinski explores the dilemma of changes confronting Soviet leaders, and explains why he believes that communism will be unable to make these changes. He provides readers with some masterful insights into what has happened and what could happen. --
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20.29 USD
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