From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Sun Jun 09 2002 - 19:17:49 MDT
UPCOMING HAYEK-L SEMINAR:
Joshua Muravchik on his book _Heaven on Earth_ -- October 6 thru
October 17
_Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism_ by Joshua Muravchik
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1893554457/ref=nosim/thefriedrhay
eksc
On the dust jacket:
"Tells the story of socialism from its origins to the final debacle
through the lives of its leaders. This novel personal approach - so
different from the dreary abstractions of most histories of socialism -
makes this book an excellent read."
-- Paul Johnson
"Even those of us who chose socialism as a conscious alternative to
religion will register the odd wince at Muravchik's unsparing review of
what becomes of these acts of faith and of those who perform them. We
must also not forget those upon whom these acts were performed."
-- Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair
Book Description
"Socialism was man's most ambitious attempt to supplant religion with a
doctrine claiming to ground itself in "science." Indeed, no religion
ever spread so far so fast. Yet while socialism had established itself
as a fact of life by the beginning of the 20th century, it did not
create societies of abundance or give birth to "the New Man." Each
failure inspired new searches for the path to the promised land:
revolution, communes, social democracy, Communism, Fascism, Third World
socialism. None worked, and some exacted staggering human tolls. Then,
after two hundred years of wishful thinking and fitful governance,
socialism suddenly imploded in a fin du siecle drama of falling walls
and collapsing regimes.
In Heaven on Earth, Joshua Muravchik traces this fiery trajectory
through sketches of the thinkers and leaders who developed the theory,
led it to power, and presided over its collapse. We see such dreamers
and doers as the French revolutionary Gracchus Babeuf, whose "Conspiracy
of Equals" were the first to try to outlaw private property; Robert
Owen, who hoped to plant a model socialist utopia in the United States;
Friedrich Engels, who created the cult of Karl Marx and "scientific"
socialism; Benito Mussolini, self proclaimed socialist heretic and
inventor of Fascism; Clement Attlee, who rejected the fanatics and set
out to build socialism democratically in Britain; Julius Nyerere, who
merged social democracy and communism in the hope of making Tanzania a
model for the developing world; and Mikhail Gorbachev, Deng Xiaoping and
Tony Blair, who became socialism's inadvertent undertakers. Muravchik's
accomplishment in Heaven on Earth is to tell a story filled with
character and event while at the same time giving us an epic chronicle
of a movement that tried to turn the world upside down -- and for a time
succeeded."
Joshua Muravchik is Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise
Institute. Muravchik is also adjunct professor, Institute of World
Politics, and adjunct scholar, Washington Institute on Near East Policy.
He is the author of _The Imperative of American Leadership: A Challenge
to Neo-Isolationism_, 1996; _Exporting Democracy: Fulfilling America's
Destiny_, 1991; _News Coverage of the Sandinista Revolution_ , 1988;
_The Uncertain Crusade: Jimmy Carter and the Dilemmas of Human Rights
Policy_, 1986.
Joshua Muravchik's web site is at:
http://www.aei.org/scholars/muravchik.htm
Reviews of _Heaven on Earth_:
>From _Booklist_:
"Just a few generations ago, socialism was regarded as the wave of the
future by millions of "enlightened" thinkers across the world; the
promise of socialism motivated hard-line Marxists, Western-educated men
of the Third World who fought for political independence, and Americans
and Europeans repelled by the inequalities of capitalism. Now, of
course, socialism is widely discredited; even former Communists in
Eastern Europe proclaim allegiance to a market economy. This engrossing
history of various socialist movements is told through portraits of the
leaders who provided the intellectual and political support for those
movements. With eloquence, skepticism, and even sympathy, Muravchik
examines the careers of figures as varied as Friedrich Engels, Clement
Atlee, and Julius Nyerere. Although each had a somewhat different
interpretation of socialism, they all shared the fatal assumption that
they could use the coercive power of the state to "improve" human
nature. This is an important work and an object lesson showing great
harm is frequently done by those with the purest motives."
>From _The Weekly Standard_:
"The radicalism of the nineteenth century, it turns out, is merely the
prologue to our own time--and the place to begin in understanding that
is with Adam Zamoyski's spellbinding account of romantics and
revolutionaries, "Holy Madness," and Joshua Muravchik's compelling
account of the history of socialism, "Heaven on Earth.""
"The Heaven That Failed: An autopsy of socialism." by Fred Siegel
_Weekly Standard_
04/22/2002, Volume 007, Issue 31
>From _The New Criterion_:
"Muravchik ranges confidently through the history of socialism, neatly
weaving biography, anecdote, and political commentary into a fascinating
chronicle of disappointed idealism. A large part of Heaven on Earth is
given over to the rise and eventual foundering of what we might call
"soft socialism." Muravchik patiently details the experiments of
utopians like Robert Owen, Marxist reformers like Eduard Bernstein (a
protégé of Engels), the trade-union movements of Samuel Gompers and
George Meany, and mid-twentieth-century redactions of the socialist
impulse in Clement Attlee's Labour government, Julius Nyerere's
Tanzania, and the Israeli kibbutz."
"The death of socialism" by Roger Kimball. _The New Criterion_ Vol. 20,
No. 8, April
2002
_World_
"Joshua Muravchik's Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism
(Encounter, 2002) is a well-crafted history of one of the world's most
popular religions over the past two centuries. Mr. Muravchik eschews the
dull vocabulary of dialectical theoreticians and instead chews up and
spits out the life stories of prominent socialists."
"Passionate prose" by Marvin Olasky _World_ May 4, 2002 Volume 17 Number
17
_The Washington Times_
"Mr. Muravchik organizes his exploration of socialism in the modern
world through biographical and analytical examinations of the beliefs,
activities and motivations of the doctrine's main founders, from
Francois-Noel Babeuf's "Conspiracy of Equals" in revolutionary France;
to the Utopian Socialism of Robert Owen, through the rise of so-called
"scientific" socialism of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and later V.I.
Lenin, to the Fascism of Benito Mussolini which had strong socialist
roots, and the Third World socialism exemplified in Africa by the reign
of Julius Nyerere in what became Tanzania ... Dreams die hard, it has
been said. Joshua Muravchik's brilliant and exciting book should help
those who still live in dreamland face reality."
"The dream and death of an idea" by Ronald Radosh, _The Washinton Times_
April 21.
_Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism_ by Joshua Muravchik.
Encounter,
417 pp.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1893554457/ref=nosim/thefriedrhay
eksc
Panel Discussion at AEI (Video):
http://www.booktv.org/ram/history/0502/btv051802_1.ram
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