Last Exit to Utopia: The Survival of Socialism in a Post-Soviet EraHere is a tasty paradox: How did the Leftist legions regroup after history delivered its fatal blow to the Soviet system? Simple, argues Jean-Francois Revel: the Left retreated to the impregnable fortress of the Utopian ideal. After all, socialism incarnate was always vulnerable to criticism. Utopia, on the other hand, lies by definition beyond reproach. With the demise of the Soviet system, there is no longer a vast and flailing embodiment of their vision, and Utopia’s haughty champions can again rage boundlessly. In Last Exit to Utopia, the latest English language translation of one of Europe’s most controversial intellectuals, Jean-Francois Revel takes aim at socialist apologists who have attempted to erase or invert the manifest failures of socialist ideology. As the tide of Big Government rises in America, Revel’s forewarnings here are as prescient as they are frightening. |
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User Review - keith0718 - LibraryThing3 stars. For me, the virtue of this book was learning that the political left in France and Europe is the same as the left on this side of the pond--unrelenting ideologues, impervious to facts, and ... Read full review
Contents
ChAptEr onELa Grande Parade | 1 |
ChAptEr twoEvasion Then Counterattack | 13 |
ChAptEr thrEEThe Real Culprit | 31 |
ChAptEr FoUrA Rigged Match | 51 |
ChAptEr FivEFrom Illusionto Accountability | 61 |
ChAptEr sixPanic amongthe Revisionists | 77 |
ChAptEr sEvEnThe Intellectual and MoralOrigins of Socialism | 93 |
ChAptEr EightTruncated Memory | 109 |
ChAptEr twELvEFearing Liberalism | 211 |
ChAptEr thirtEEnThe UltraLeftand AntiAmericanism | 249 |
ChAptEr FoUrtEEnHating Progress | 281 |
AppEnDix ALa Pensée Unique | 293 |
AppEnDix BLionel Jospinand The Black Book | 297 |
AppEnDix CThe Little Red Writer | 301 |
FrenchCriminal Code 1992 | 305 |
The Occupation | 307 |
Common terms and phrases
accused actually Alain American anticommunists antifascist antiliberal argument Black Book Book of Communism Bourdieu camps capitalism capitalist Castro chapter China Communism’s Communist Party Communist regimes condemn countries crimes against humanity criminality Cuba cultural democracy democratic dictatorship dirigiste East Germany economic English error Europe European fact failure fascist Fayard France France’s François Furet French Communist Party genocide Germany global Gulag historians Hitler ideas ideology illusion intellectual Italian Jacques journalist Khmer Khmer Rouge L’Humanité labor Le Figaro left-wing left’s leftist Lenin liberalism liberty Lionel Jospin Marx Marxist million Monde moral munism murder National Nazi Nazism never pensée unique percent Pierre policies political president prime minister published question reality revolution Robert Hue socialism socialist Socialist Party society Soviet Union Stalin Stalinist Stéphane Courtois television totalitarian Translator’s note truth ultra-left United USSR victims Western
Bibliographic information
| Title | Last Exit to Utopia: The Survival of Socialism in a Post-Soviet Era Encounter Broadsides |
| Author | Jean-François Revel |
| Publisher | Encounter Books, 2009 |
| ISBN | 1594032645, 9781594032646 |
| Length | 348 pages |
| Subjects | › › Political Science / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |