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

Furet, François

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226273415 ISBN 13: 9780226273419

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2000

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

Review:

Born in the 19th century as a theory, communism became a reality only in the 20th, when Lenin led the Bolsheviks to power in the October Revolution of 1917. In The Passing of an Illusion, the late French historian François Furet argues that Lenin had little idea that the revolution he set in motion in Russia would so swiftly spread to other countries. The October Revolution did spread, Furet continues, because it gave citizens of the European and Asian powers caught up in World War I the idea that war was neither necessary nor inevitable. Russia's example proved that a country at war could simply declare that enough was enough and walk away. That action, Furet says, "endowed the idea of revolution not so much with a doctrine as with a universal sense of peace rediscovered." For nations bled dry by four years of war, the promise of peace was irresistible. That promise, announced by a red banner, troubled the ruling classes of nations across the globe for the next seven decades.

This sweeping, utterly essential history traces the rise of state communism through such exemplars as Stalin and Mao Zedong, charts its degradation in the dictatorship not of the proletariat but of powerful individuals, and documents the last gasps of the doctrine in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Furet ends by remarking on a strange irony, a logical outcome of communism that Lenin and his contemporaries would have feared to foresee: with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, "class warfare, the dictatorship of the proletariat, Marxism-Leninism have given way to the very things they were supposed to replace--bourgeois proprietorship, the liberal democratic state, individual rights, free enterprise. All that remains of the regimes of October is what they sought to destroy." --Gregory McNamee

From the Inside Flap:

Written by one of the twentieth century's preeminent historians, Le passé d'une illusion is a penetrating history of the ideological passions that have fueled and characterized the modern era.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0226273415
• ISBN 13: 9780226273419
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 600