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Vanguard of the Revolution is a sweeping history of one of the most significant political institutions of the modern world. The communist party was a revolutionary idea long before its supporters came to power. In this book, A. James McAdams argues that the rise and fall of communism can be understood only by taking into account the origins and evolution of this compelling idea. He shows how the leaders of parties in countries as diverse as the Soviet Union, China, Germany, Yugoslavia, Cuba, and North Korea adapted the original ideas of revolutionaries like Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin to profoundly different social and cultural settings. Taking readers from the drafting of The Communist Manifesto in the 1840s to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, McAdams describes the decisive role played by individual rulers in the success of their respective parties¿men like Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Fidel Castro. He demonstrates how these personalities drew on vying conceptions of the party's functions to mesmerize their followers, mobilize their populations, and transform their societies. He also shows how many of these figures abused these ideas to justify incomprehensible acts of inhumanity. McAdams explains why communist parties lasted as long as they did, and why they either disappeared or ceased to be meaningful institutions by the close of the twentieth century.
A. James McAdams is the William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs and director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His many books include Judging the Past in Unified Germany and Germany Divided: From the Wall to Reunification (Princeton). He lives in South Bend, Indiana.
Show moreVanguard of the Revolution is a sweeping history of one of the most significant political institutions of the modern world. The communist party was a revolutionary idea long before its supporters came to power. In this book, A. James McAdams argues that the rise and fall of communism can be understood only by taking into account the origins and evolution of this compelling idea. He shows how the leaders of parties in countries as diverse as the Soviet Union, China, Germany, Yugoslavia, Cuba, and North Korea adapted the original ideas of revolutionaries like Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin to profoundly different social and cultural settings. Taking readers from the drafting of The Communist Manifesto in the 1840s to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, McAdams describes the decisive role played by individual rulers in the success of their respective parties¿men like Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Fidel Castro. He demonstrates how these personalities drew on vying conceptions of the party's functions to mesmerize their followers, mobilize their populations, and transform their societies. He also shows how many of these figures abused these ideas to justify incomprehensible acts of inhumanity. McAdams explains why communist parties lasted as long as they did, and why they either disappeared or ceased to be meaningful institutions by the close of the twentieth century.
A. James McAdams is the William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs and director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His many books include Judging the Past in Unified Germany and Germany Divided: From the Wall to Reunification (Princeton). He lives in South Bend, Indiana.
Show morePreface ix Note xiii Abbreviations xv 1 Introduction 1 2 A Revolutionary Idea 18 3 A Revolutionary Party Emerges 59 4 Internationalizing the Party Idea 102 5 Creating the Leninist Party 141 6 A Different Type of Party 183 7 Monolithic Socialism 222 8 Rediscovering the Leninist Idea 268 9 The Charismatic Leader and the Party 310 10 The Revolution Returns 337 11 The Party Comes Back 380 12 The Party in Peril 428 13 The Party Vanishes 475 Photo Credits 501 Notes 503 Suggested Readings (Books in English) 531 Index 543
A. James McAdams is the William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs and director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His many books include Judging the Past in Unified Germany and Germany Divided: From the Wall to Reunification (Princeton). He lives in South Bend, Indiana.
"One of Foreign Affairs' Picks for Best of Books 2018"
"A . . . successful example of big think history. If war built the
state, it also helped build the Communist Party. Vladimir Lenin's
faction, the Bolsheviks, was particularly aided by World War I. And
Communism, once in power, reversed Clausewitz’s famous dictum and
made politics war by other means. The party often attacked the
people--first in the Russia of Lenin and Stalin, but most
especially in Mao Zedong’s China, from the Hundred Flowers movement
to the Great Leap Forward and then the Cultural Revolution, killing
untold millions of people. It’s a lively if depressing
story."---Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times Book Review
"The historiography on Marxism, as well as communist movements in
general, is notoriously inaccessible; McAdams delivers a lucid and
beautifully written volume that defies the norm, providing a highly
readable study of the party."
*Publishers Weekly*
"Important. . . . Brilliant. . . . It's been nearly a decades since
Robert Service’s Comrades presented readers with a history of
Communism on a global scale, and although the idea is still as dead
as Jacob Marley, McAdams finds even more to tell about it, and is
fascinating and judicial the whole time he does so."---Steve
Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly
"A brilliant and sweeping introduction to one of the most
provocative political institutions of our times. . . . Vanguard of
the Revolution provides intellectual provocation, historical
breadth and an inspiration to take better care of our fragile
democracies."---Yvonne Howell, Times Higher Education
"It is a broad, comparative history of communist parties in power,
one which required a tremendous amount of knowledge to write, and
subtly but successfully undermines the easy equation of communism
with totalitarianism that has been a liberal talking point for far
too long."---Patrick Iber, Los Angeles Review of Books
"The book excels in explaining the repertoire of methods whereby
the new communist regimes that came to power after the Second World
War tried to maintain their momentum. . . . Carefully
plotted."---Stuart Macintyre, Sydney Morning Herald
"Impressive."---Joshua Muravchik, Commentary
"McAdams wrestles with a . . . profound puzzle: How was it, given
the failure of Marx’s prophecies, that his ideas continued to
animate communist parties and eventually led them to power in 24
countries?"---Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs
"A groundbreaking book, Vanguard of the Revolution is a terrific
read. . . . A magnificent book on [communism's] history and
impact."---Andrew Fedynsky, Ukrainian Weekly
"[Vanguard of the Revolution] offers an important new
historiography of the idea not just of the Communist party but of
Communism in the twentieth and now twenty-first century."---Bill V.
Mullen, Russian Review
"[T]his remains a compelling and necessary book."---George Bodie,
Slavonic & East European Review
"Vanguard of the Revolution is a very readable synthesis of the
history of the communist party, from Marx and Engels’s manifesto to
the collapse of the USSR. McAdams handles both the global sweep and
the local details of each case he covers with an impressive
assurance and levelheadedness, all while keeping his distance from
the tired Cold War polemics that usually surround this
subject."---Tony Wood, The Nation
"McAdams explores the societal conditions that brought Communist
movements to power. Ranging over the particular histories of
Russia, China, Cuba, and many places in between, he deftly
describes the upheavals wrought by modernization, war, and colonial
oppression to explain Communism’s appeal. . . . McAdams is a master
of classification and discerning difference. . . . As we now focus
on ever darker challenges—illiberalism and xenophobic nationalism,
environmental degradation, and religious fundamentalism—we run the
risk of seeing Communism as a benign, quaint bête noire of the
twentieth century. Fortunately, Vanguard of the Revolution reminds
us otherwise."---Catherine Epstein, American Historical Review
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