Superbly informative, written with great insight and real style.
An erudite yet readable introduction to the economic theory that grew into the 20th century’s worst political nightmare, by distinguished historian Pipes (Prosperity and Freedom, 1999, etc.).
In a masterfully succinct survey, Pipes provides a good glimpse of many of the precursors of communism (Plato’s Republic, More’s Utopia, etc.), but he rightly concentrates on the 19th century and the enigmatic figure of Karl Marx as the true founder of the creed. Marx promulgated two basic ideas that were essential to the development of communism: 1) there is an inexorable natural law that governs the course of human history; and 2) all wealth is created by labor. The first proposition was beyond proof, of course, and the second was dubious at best, but these were the first of many miscalculations that Marx’s followers had to overlook in the decades that followed. For, as the author allows, “Marxism in its pure, unadulterated form was nowhere adopted as a political platform because it flew in the face of reality.” It developed instead into social democracy (in Western Europe) and communism (in Eastern Europe)—the main distinction between the two being the comparative emphasis that was placed on violence and terror as a means of redressing social injustice. The tragic history of Soviet Communism is recounted at length, and Pipes is at pains to demonstrate that, just as Stalinist terror was not (despite Trotskyist objections) an abuse of Leninist principles, Lenin’s own vicious pragmatism and astounding cruelty were perfectly in line with Marx’s approach to politics. The pathetic corruption of the Soviet apparat (with its privileged caste of Party members who lived in a hermetic society of private stores, housing, schools, hospitals, etc.) was not, in the author’s view, a later malformation—it was, in fact, present almost from the very first days of the Bolshevist coup and was very largely responsible for its success. As one sociologist comments sadly, “socialist may triumph, but socialism never.”
Superbly informative, written with great insight and real style.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2001
ISBN: 0-679-64050-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Modern Library
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An inspiring, humorous, and thoughtful account of unexpected single motherhood by former LBJ White House press secretary Carpenter (Ruffles and Flourishes, 1970). Raising three teenagers as a single parent is never an easy task. And for a woman in her 70s, suffering from a variety of medical ailments, it could have been overwhelming. Liz Carpenter not only took on the challenge of raising her deceased brother's three children but probably did it better than most women half her age. A widow for almost 20 years and a grandmother, Carpenter was not eager to resume the role of parent. But when her dying brother (a twice-married English professor, poet, and semi-vagabond) asked her to raise his brood, she felt that without her ``these children stared at a future whose door was closed.'' Almost immediately, Carpenter resolved to give these teens the discipline and stability they never had. Household tasks were assigned; homework was carefully monitored; and morality (of a far more innocent generation) was instilled. Because of Carpenter's own lifetime of experiences, she was able to laugh at fashions (frayed, faded denim shorts above boots ``inspired by Nazi stormtroopers'') and antics that might have ruffled a younger parent. Yet she had her share of tense moments. What is a mother to do when the phone rings at 1:30 a.m. from the Austin police headquarters and she is told that her 12-year-old has been caught in a traffic violation? And imagine having to generate an entire term's work of 12th-grade English in four days so that your daughter—who has spent the term reading Stephen King—can graduate with her class. A wise and animated account of raising children well in spite of a particularly large generation gap. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-42798-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
A multivocal treatment well suited to the complex and dappled life of one of America's premier modern poets. Members of Bishop's wide circle of friends from literature and the arts (among them John Ashbery, Robert Giroux, Helen Muchnic, Anne Stevenson, Ned Rorem, and James Laughlin) recall with eloquence the poet's intelligence, her reserve, her anxiety, and her peculiar intensity through the stages and stories of her accomplished and troubled life. Born to a mentally ill mother and a father who died when she was eight months old, Bishop (19111979) spent her early years living with family members in Worcester, Boston, and Great Village, Mass. Recollections by her childhood friends reveal a very intelligent but odd personality—shy, and often embarrassed or pained by common experiences. Several contributors comment, however, on the order, discipline, and companionship she found at the Walnut Hill School between 1927 and '30; there she began to write plays, short stories, book reviews, and poetry for the school's magazine. From her Vassar days, Bishop is remembered for her strong mind, arch wit, sometimes taciturn demeanor, and her talent for writing. With Mary McCarthy and others, she launched the alternative literary magazine Con Spirito, which created a sensation on campus and brought her to the notice of the Ivy League literati of the time, eventually yielding an introduction to poet Marianne Moore. After graduating from college, Bishop traveled to New York, Europe, Key West, and Rio de Janeiro, and through several lesbian love relationships, the most sustained of which with Lota de Macedo Soares. Friends recall these adult years as difficult, sometimes drunken, but also rewarding for Bishop as a person and a poet. After her lover's death in 1967, Bishop's life took shape around a series of teaching appointments at the University of Washington, Harvard, and finally New York University. Although a few of Fountain's (English dept. chairman at Miss Porter's School) and Brazeau's (Parts of a World: Wallace Stevens Remembered, 1983) transitions push too hard, the portrait of the poet this oral biography creates is, finally, absorbing and at times beautiful and graced with artfulness.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-87023-936-8
Page Count: 448
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
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