Blackshirts and Reds

Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism

Michael Parenti

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English

City Lights Books
02 January 2001

Society & Social Sciences; Cultural studies; Fascism & Nazism

"Blackshirts & Reds explores some of the big issues of our time: fascism, capitalism, communism, revolution, democracy, and ecology—terms often bandied about but seldom explored in the original and exciting way that has become Michael Parenti’s trademark.

Parenti shows how “rational fascism” renders service to capitalism, how corporate power undermines democracy, and how revolutions are a mass empowerment against the forces of exploitative privilege. He also maps out the external and internal forces that destroyed communism, and the disastrous impact of the “free-market” victory on eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He affirms the relevance of taboo ideologies like Marxism, demonstrating the importance of class analysis in understanding political realities and dealing with the ongoing collision between ecology and global corporatism.

Written with lucid and compelling style, this book goes beyond truncated modes of thought, inviting us to entertain iconoclastic views, and to ask why things are as they are. It is a bold and entertaining exploration of the epic struggles of yesterday and today.

""A penetrating and persuasive writer with an astonishing array of documentation to implement his attacks.""—The Catholic Journalist

""Blackshirts & Reds discusses the great combat between fascism and socialism that is the defining feature of the Twentieth Century, and takes every official version to task for its substitution of moral analysis for critical analysis, for its selectivity, and for its errata. By portraying the struggle between fascism and Communism in this century as a single conflict, and not a series of discrete encounters, between the insatiable need for new capital on the one hand and the survival of a system under siege on the other, Parenti defines fascism as the weapon of capitalism, not simply an extreme form of it. Fascism is not an aberration, he points out, but a ""rational"" and integral component of the system.""—Stan Goff, The Prism

Michael Parenti, PhD Yale, is an internationally known author and lecturer. He is one of the nation's leadiing progressive political analysts. He is the author of over 275 published articles and twenty books. His writings are published in popular periodicals, scholarly journals, and his op-ed pieces have been in leading newspapers such as The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. His informative and entertaining books and talks have reached a wide range of audiences in North America and abroad."

By: Michael Parenti
Imprint: City Lights Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 205mm, Width: 142mm, Spine: 13mm
Weight: 240g
ISBN: 9780872863293
ISBN 10: 0872863298
Pages: 165
Publication Date: 02 January 2001
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Michael Parenti, PhD Yale, is an internationally known author and lecturer. He is one of the nation's leadiing progressive political analysts. He is the author of over 250 published articles and seventeen books. His writings are published in popular periodicals, scholarly journals, and his op-ed pieces have been in leading newspapers such as the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. His informative and entertaining books and talks have reached a wide range of audiences in North America and abroad.

Reviews for Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism

Many books have been written on Yoga, but Feuerstein's is perhaps the best ever published. --Choice <br> Sound, discerning, and endlessly useful. No serious student of Yoga--the most protracted human effort to explore the limits of consciousness--can afford to be without it. A splendid introduction positions the subject lucidly in the global history of the human spirit. --Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions <br> All Westerners interested in Eastern philosophy and religion will soon wonder how they ever did without this volume at their side. --Jacob Needleman, author of The Heart of Philosophy