A STUDY OF COMMUNISM

by J. Edgar Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1962

A sequel to Masters of (1958) again blueprints and briefs the average reader on the aims and methods of Communism. It also returns to the economic, sociological, political and psychological origins of the movement and its attractions, returning in particular to Karl Marx and the writing of Das Kapital and concluding that Communists are ""false prophets"". Their method is error and their views are distorted. Parallels are drawn between Lenin's adaptation of the Marxist movement and the American Revolution. In later chapters Hoover traces the perversion of the ideology in the hands of the Russians, the power struggle that followed, the attempts to communize the U.S. since Stalin's rise and fall, and how nationalism has thwarted Communism. How the Communist Party operates in the United States, and how Communism and Free World structures differ on such basic points as law, economy, education, elections, etc. also form basic parts of the book. Hoover's historical information is correct though overfly simplified, and his conclusions seem to follow much thinking in this country today. It is a book dispassionately written, designed not to dis-color, but to bring the reader awareness of a broad and important area of political facts. As such it succeeds, although in some of the dichotomies between the Red and Free Worlds, it tends to make too many black and white distinctions. The head of the F.B.I. carries weight in many circles and speaks with special authority.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1962

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1962

Categories: NONFICTION