The Passing of an Illusion : The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century - Hardcover

Furet, François

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226273407 ISBN 13: 9780226273402

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1999

Synopsis

François Furet was acknowledged as the twentieth century's preeminent historian of the French Revolution. But years before his death, he turned his attention to the consequences and aftermath of another critical revolution—the Communist revolution. The result, Le passé d'une illusion, is a penetrating history of the ideological passions that have fueled and characterized the modern era.

"This may well be the most illuminating study ever devoted to the question of appeal exerted not only by Communism but also by the Nazi and other fascist varieties of totalitarianism in this century."—Hilton Kramer, New Criterion

"A subtle, nuanced but gripping study of the most pervasive and destructive illusion in the 20th century." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"The Passing of an Illusion . . . is both a profound work of intellectual history that takes its place alongside other great studies of the leftist heresy . . . and a relentless diagnosis of the self-subversive risks that are inherent in democratic regimes. "—Roger Kaplan, Washington Times

" A remarkable book. . . . Stimulating and challenging. . . . A man widely read in several languages, Furet clearly knew his way around 20th-century Europe, even unto the dark alleys that figure on no existing map. "—Mark Falcoff, Commentary

"A history of ideas, this work is not for the faint of heart, yet those who challenge it will discover a signal contribution to the literature of Communism."—Booklist

"Imperious and stunningly confident, grand in conception and expansive in manner, packed with fascinating detail and often incisive judgements."—John Dunn, Times Higher Education Supplement

"The Passing of an Illusion is brilliant, and one would be hard pressed to find better writing of history than the first chapter, which traces the roots of modern political thinking back to the nineteenth century."—J. Arch Getty, Atlantic Monthly

"A brilliant and important book. . . . The publication of the American edition makes accessible to the general reader the most thought-provoking historical assessment of communism in Europe to appear since its collapse."—Jeffrey Herf, Wall Street Journal

François Furet (1927-1997), educator and author, was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and was elected, in 1997, to become one of the "Forty Immortals" of the Académie Française, the highest intellectual honor in France. His many books include Interpreting the French Revolution, Marx and the French Revolution, and Revolutionary France. Deborah Furet, his widow, collaborated with him on many projects.

About this title

About the Authors

François Furet (1927-97) was the leading French historian of the Revolution and, according to the New York Times, "one of the most influential French thinkers of the post-war era."

 


Deborah Furet is François Furet’s widow and frequent translator and works at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales. 

Reviews

A subtle, nuanced, but gripping study of the most pervasive and destructive illusion of the 20th century, that of the virtues of communism. This book by the late Furet, a member of the Acadmie Franaise, and scholar of the French Revolution, and himself a former Communist, has already been translated into more than a dozen languages. In it he tries to grapple with the paradox of the wide admiration for a regime like that of the Soviet Union, manifestly unfree, economically unsuccessful, and unprecedentedly brutal toward its people. He finds the basis for its appeal in its seeming promise of human equality but even more in the disillusionment created by the First World War, from which National Socialism also received its impetus. Indeed, he finds that communism and Nazism fed off each other and even suggests that Stalin, who admired Hitler's ruthlessness, learnt a lesson from the Night of the Long Knives, during which Hitler purged the stormtroopers. Most of all, communism benefited from being seen as the sole anticapitalist, antifascist force. Its universality can be understood by its appeal even to the reformist British intelligentsia. Most surprising of all was the bland indifference of Western intellectuals to the monstrous cruelty of the terror. It was only when the terror had largely subsided, and when the Pasternaks and the Solzhenitsyns were merely being gagged and harassed rather than executed, that intellectuals protested. The end came, in Furet's view, when Khrushchev denounced Stalin's crimes, which brought into question the two wellsprings of the Soviet regime: ideology and terror. Most ironic of all, Furet suggests, is the paucity of interest shown by European intellectuals in the virtues of the American system of government. Furet devotes himself almost entirely to Europe, and the book, for all its vitality, is not easy reading. But there are few books that deal so well or with such subtlety with the opiate of the closing century's intellectuals. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

A bestseller in France translated into 13 languages, this lucid "interpretive essay" is a particularly Eurocentric "history of the illusion of Communism during the time in which the USSR lent it consistency and vitality." Despite the broad promise of the title, Furet (1927-1997), a noted historian of the French Revolution (Revolutionary France, etc.), limits his study to Europe, especially France, and barely addresses the post-Khrushchev years. Both European fascism and communism, he argues, were antibourgeois passions fueled by mass politicization and post-WWI social fracturing. Quite interesting for American readers are his portraits of European intellectuals who, despite evidence of Soviet depredations, remained loyal to the revolutionary ideal. Also valuable is his close study of antifascism in France, where antifascist communists gained prominence. In one of the few allusions to the American scene, he notes that European intellectuals lacked a Hannah Arendt to conceptualize both the fascism they had opposed and the communism they embraced under the heading of totalitarianism. While he claims, a bit sweepingly, that the communist idea has now been liquidated, he astutely notes that the problems communism professed to solveAthe tensions inherent in bourgeois democracy between the needs of humanity and the needs of the marketAremain. That insight is a fitting coda to this solemn and measured obituary of the communist idea.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Observing that Communism expired as faith in its precepts died begs the question of what led to the disillusion. Furet leads an intensive inquiry into Communism's transmutations, examining Lenin's insistence that backward Russia could spark the world proletarian revolution--a heresy to orthodox Marxists--and Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin in 1956. The late Furet, an ex-communist, was familiar with the ideological flexibility of the revolutionary creed's founders, whose contortionist ability he illustrates within the turbulent pre-1940 politics of his native France. Furet professes perplexity about how Leninist Communism justified its terroristic one-party rule long after the revolutionary fires of 1917 had gone out. His answers, evolving from studious argumentation, are crystal clear: Stalin's 1925 doctrinal innovation of socialism-in-one-country nationalized the ideology; abroad he succeeded in making Communism the anti-Fascist party, whose life was extended by the 1945 victory. A history of ideas, this work is not for the faint of heart, yet those who challenge it will discover a signal contribution to the literature of Communism. Gilbert Taylor

Furet, who gained prominence as a historian of the French Revolution, died shortly after this book, his last, became an unexpected best seller in France. Turning to the question of the "universal spell" of communism and the impact of the Soviet experiment on European intellectual life, Furet argues that Russia's October Revolution affirmed "the role of volition in history and of man's invention of himself." Lenin and his followers were able to offer working-class militants and disaffected intellectuals the "modern elixir" of a complete break with bourgeois society. After the triumph of the Bolsheviks, "no country, no matter how distant, exotic, or unlikely, would be considered ineligible to be a combatant in the universal revolution." The problem, of course, was that the revolution promised more than it was able to deliver. According to Furet, the early Soviet system was "fraudulent" and politically inept, and the rise of Stalinism only deepened the regime's authoritarianism. Furet writes with wit and insight, and even those who might disagree with his conclusions will find much of substance in this volume. Recommended for public and academic libraries.AKent Worcester, Marymount Manhattan Coll., New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226273407
• ISBN 13: 9780226273402
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 600