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Heaven on Earth

The Rise, Fall, and Afterlife of Socialism

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Heaven on Earth

By: Joshua Muravchik
Narrated by: Bob Souer
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About this listen

Socialism was man's most ambitious attempt to supplant religion with a doctrine claiming to ground itself in "science". Each failure to create societies of abundance or give birth to "the New Man" inspired more searching for the path to the promised land: revolution, communes, social democracy, communism, fascism, Arab socialism, African socialism. None worked, and some exacted a staggering human toll. Then, after two centuries of wishful thinking and bitter disappointment, socialism imploded in a fin de siecle drama of falling walls and collapsing regimes. It was an astonishing denouement but what followed was no less astonishing. After the hiatus of a couple of decades, new voices were raised, as if innocent of all that had come before, proposing to try it all over again.

Joshua Muravchik traces the pursuit of this phantasm, presenting sketches of the thinkers and leaders who developed the theory, led it to power, and presided over its collapse, as well as those who are trying to revive it today. Heaven on Earth is a story filled with character and event which at the same time gives us an epic chronicle of a movement that tried to turn the world upside down - and for a time succeeded.

©2002, 2003, 2019 Joshua Muravchik (P)2019 Tantor
20th Century Modern Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences World Socialism War Capitalism Imperialism Soviet Union Africa Social justice Liberalism Self-Determination Russia Latin American Refugee China Middle Ages

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Really interesting review of attempts at Socialist systems (bar Scandanavia). Could maybe do with being a little more balanced.

Excellent review of socialist 'experiments"

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