*Socialism vs Capitalism*
 
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Enemies of the State: Personal Stories from the Gulag, edited by Donald and Agnieszka Critchlow. Communist states are known for their prison camps, their slave labor and their cruelty. The Critchlows have collected 10 stories from people who survived purges, torture and other rigors of statism. These are excerpts from memoirs published between 1951 and 1986 from the Soviet Union, Hungary, Viet Nam, Cuba and China. Each one is a page-turner that teaches us lessons about life and courage even as it reminds us of the importance of politics, history and economics.
Read Our In-Depth Review in the Conservative Monitor!
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Chinese Views of Future Warfare, by Michael Pillsbury. China may be the most important issue to face America in the coming decades. What should our stance be on trade with China? How about technology exchange? More important what are China's intentions toward us? Will we have to confront them in the future if they plan on hegemony in Asia? If so, what is their military like? What are their plans in the next ten years? Michael Pillsbury helps to answer all of these questions in his book. This study is packed with analysis and information based on actual studies done by the Chinese military. If you want a stark and realistic view of the only military power the U.S. is likely to face in the next decade, you should get this book.
A related book that compares U.S. and Chinese capacity for military conflict is Lifting the Fog of War, by Admiral Bill Owens.
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The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire, by Brian Crozier. This is the most comprehensive history of the Soviet Union to be found in a single volume. The enormous calamity of the communist experiment is explored through the tragic story of the Soviet Empire. From the destruction wrought by the Civil War, through the Purges and the Gulag to the war in Afghanistan we are mesmerized by the folly and drama imposed upon millions through the ideological mistakes of a few intellectuals and many power mad dictators. Those knowledgeable on the subject will find the book reinforcing; those not yet familiar will find the story both riveting and educational.
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The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, Edited by Stephane Courtois, Translated by Mark Kramer and Jonathan Murphy. This powerful record of the crimes perpetrated in the name of the communist Utopian ideal is startling in its starkness and tenacious reliance upon fact. In more than 800 pages the deaths of 100 million people are brought to human, and almost understandable terms. We are shown that from the very inception of communism in practice that murderous and criminal intent has been its guide. Even the early correspondence of Lenin reveals that his goal all along was to exterminate whole classes of the population in order to ease the imposition of his "ideals" upon the nation of Russia and ultimately the world. Courtois makes the case that such human suffering and destruction is the inevitable outgrowth of communism. Apologists say that communism as applied in Russia (25 million murdered), China (65 million murdered), Cambodia (2 million murdered), East Europe (1 million murdered), Cuba (thousands murdered), etc... was a mere aberration. This book shows that the modern apologists willfully deceive themselves. This influential work has been the talk of Europe since its publication in France in 1997. It should be required reading for every American who has the faintest notions about politics, socialism or communism.
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Architects of Victory: Six Heroes of the Cold War, by Joseph Shattan is a much needed corrective to the revisionist histories currently being produced in academe. It is plain to anyone with a shred of common sense that the United States defeated the Soviet Union (with its slave labor camps and repression of individual freedoms) without firing a shot. This victory was achieved through the greatness of individuals. These men are featured in "Architects of Victory", Harry Truman for his steadfastness during the Berlin Airlift, Winston Churchill for his opposition to Soviet Imperialism and his "Iron Curtain" speech, Konrad Adenauer for piloting Germany to the West, Solzhenitsyn for his masterpiece, "Gulag Archipelago" that allowed calloused eyes to see what the communist system had done to his beloved Russia, Pope John Paul II for his strong stance that inspired Eastern Europeans to defy Marxism, and finally Ronald Reagan, who had the vision to see the way to defeat the Soviet powerhouse through economic means rather than on the bloody battlefield. This book is thoroughly researched and thoroughly readable, a great reminder of what can be accomplished by people with vision, hope and plain common sense.
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Who Killed Kirov? The Kremlin's Greatest Mystery, by Amy Knight is a thoughtfully composed book on the what has proved to be the most sensational crime in Russian History, the assassination of Sergei Kirov. Kirov's death sparked a series of purges in Soviet Russia that would terrorize the nation from the lowest peasant to the highest party functionary. Ms. Knight has done a tremendous service in bringing this case back into the public limelight.
Read our in-depth review of "Who Killed Kirov?"
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From Plato to NATO; The Idea of the West and Its Opponents (hb,610pp), by David Gress is a fascinating look at Western History. Mr. Gress reviews and bemoans the recent trend in scholarship that attempts to abandon Western Culture because of its capacity for evil; at the same time he criticizes those who would simplistically laud it for its accomplishments. This work goes beyond merely taking modern scholars to task, it also offers a cogent view of Western History, proposing the intelligent proposition that "The relationship of prosperity to Liberty and power remains the chief feature of Western identity." He illustrates that freedom did not spring from nothing, rather it evolved due to the realities of political power. "From Plato to NATO" is an essential work for those wishing to understand the conflict between idealists and realists in the culture war that rages around European and American History.
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The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity (hb,448pp), by Tom Bethell is an historical review of the roll of property in history. Covering eras from ancient to modern, Mr. Bethell, a correspondent for the American Spectator, moves beyond mere recitation of historical facts to clearly demonstrate that societies with strong property rights coupled with a rule of law tend to be the most prosperous. This is attributed to the tendency of those owning property to maximize the value of that property, thereby creating wealth that benefits the rest of society as well. "The Noblest Triumph" also looks at societies that have discarded property rights and illuminates their rationale. Leon Trotsky, one of the three great architects of communism in the now defunct Soviet Union noted, "In a country where the sole employer is the state, opposition means death by slow starvation." In other words, the communists were well aware of the ability of private property rights to foster behavior and beliefs independent of the party line. This is an excellent read for any one interested in history or economics.
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Since 1848 there has been a struggle between two economic systems that has shed more blood and created more ferment than any other ideas in the history of man. Communism/Socialism has spawned concentration camps, death marches, slave labor, gulags, world wars and more..
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