This book explores the relationship between diverse social movements and Marxist historical cultures during the second half of the twentieth century in Western Europe, with special emphasis on the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy. During the Cold War, Marxist ideas and understandings of history informed not only the traditional Communist Parties in Western Europe, but also influenced a range of new social movements that emerged in the 1970s in the wake of the 1968 student rebellions. The generation of 1968 was strongly influenced by neo-Marxist ideas that they subsequently carried into the new social movements. The volume asks how Marxist historical cultures influenced third world movements, anti-fascist movements, the peace movement and a whole host of other new social movements that signaled a new vibrancy of civil society in Western Europe from the 1970s onwards.

In his major work on communism, the international bestseller The Passing of an Illusion, the eminent French historian Franöois Furet devoted a lengthy footnote to German historian Ernst Nolte?s interpretation of fascism. Nolte responded, a correspondence ensued, and the result was the remarkable exchange presented in this volume. Fascism and Communism offers readers the rare opportunity to witness and learn from a confrontation between two of the world?s most distinguished historians over one of the most serious subjects of our time. Each from a different perspective, Furet and Nolte offer compelling arguments for the common genealogy of these two ideologies as well as reasons for the intellectual community?s rejection of this explosive thesis throughout the twentieth century. This discussion leads to a deeper understanding of the nature of totalitarianism as well as the trajectory and interpretation of modern European history.

The Devil in History is a provocative analysis of the relationship between communism and fascism. Reflecting the author’s personal experiences within communist totalitarianism, this is a book about political passions, radicalism, utopian ideals, and their catastrophic consequences in the twentieth century’s experiments in social engineering. Vladimir Tismaneanu brilliantly compares communism and fascism as competing, sometimes overlapping, and occasionally strikingly similar systems of political totalitarianism. He examines the inherent ideological appeal of these radical, revolutionary political movements, the visions of salvation and revolution they pursued, the value and types of charisma of leaders within these political movements, the place of violence within these systems, and their legacies in contemporary politics. The author discusses thinkers who have shaped contemporary understanding of totalitarian movements—people such as Hannah Arendt, Raymond Aron, Isaiah Berlin, Albert Camus, François Furet, Tony Judt, Ian Kershaw, Leszek Kolakowski, Richard Pipes, and Robert C. Tucker. As much a theoretical analysis of the practical philosophies of Marxism-Leninism and Fascism as it is a political biography of particular figures, this book deals with the incarnation of diabolically nihilistic principles of human subjugation and conditioning in the name of presumably pure and purifying goals. Ultimately, the author claims that no ideological commitment, no matter how absorbing, should ever prevail over the sanctity of human life. He comes to the conclusion that no party, movement, or leader holds the right to dictate to the followers to renounce their critical faculties and to embrace a pseudo-miraculous, a mystically self-centered, delusional vision of mandatory happiness.

In this timely book, American Marxism: How a New Cold War Drives the Progressives' Agenda, author William Reeves takes a close look at the history of Marxism. It examines the evolution of socialism, how it was refined over the course of several decades by neo-Marxists from an economic theory to a social science to a political and cultural path to power. It highlights how today's progressives--who have overtaken Liberals in setting the agenda for the American Left--have used Cultural Marxism to construct a divisive and hypocritical platform that flies in the face of every ideal put forth by our Founding Fathers.Learn more about how the tenants of Marxism have been rebranded as progressivism, and how this tired and failed philosophy has enveloped a far left that is bent on the destruction of America. Discover what this toxic ideology means for the future of our country and how this movement is used by those in the arts, the media and academia to negatively influence what American's can and should believe about our nation. By discussing both the history of Marxism and how it is being applied by the leftist political movement in an effort to win the hearts and minds of Americans, we can better understand the intentions of their agenda and develop counter measures to expose it. William Reeves holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in urban studies and a Master of Arts degree in economics. He has enjoyed a lengthy career as a public policy and government relations consultant, writer and educator and lives with his family in Southern California.