• The Romance of American Communism

  • By: Vivian Gornick
  • Narrated by: Randye Kaye
  • Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (22 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
The Romance of American Communism  By  cover art

The Romance of American Communism

By: Vivian Gornick
Narrated by: Randye Kaye
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.49

Buy for $21.49

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Writer and critic Vivian Gornick's long-unavailable classic exploring how Left politics gave depth and meaning to American life.

"Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class."

So begins Vivian Gornick's exploration of how the world of socialists, communists, and progressives in the 1940s and 1950s created a rich, diverse world where ordinary men and women felt their lives connected to a larger human project.

Now back in print after its initial publication in 1977 and with a new introduction by the author, The Romance of American Communism is a landmark work of new journalism, profiling American Communist Party members and fellow travelers as they joined the Party, lived within its orbit, and left in disillusionment and disappointment as Stalin's crimes became public.

©1977 Vivian Gornick (P)2020 Tantor

What listeners say about The Romance of American Communism

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Narrator is robotic but clear. As is the message on why Communism is attractive

Lots of interviews on how lots of folks were romanticized and given a purpose to only have the shocking realization that Communism and at that Soviet Communism is only pretty on paper and leads to miserable conditions and ultimately death on the people it claims to help and uphold.
Thomas Sowell, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn and countless others who have practiced and realized too later at times the disaster of Communism and Marxism.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Romance of genocide

Most people have no idea of the history of genocide in the world, but it all leads back to communism starting in 1923 with the rise of Stalin and Mao the two worst genocidal killersthe world has ever seen. They have devastated the world for the last hundred years where hundreds of millions of people have died, fact.

Sadly, this book glorifies and glamorizes communism as some type of struggle that completely leaves out the history of the 20th century, and the Cold War. It makes it into a situation where people have no history of the devastation in Vietnam, Russia, Korea, and today, China, this book is a disingenuous approach, and Does not serve the reader in any full capacity of telling the complete history of communism, but instead glorifies it as a solution to all the world problems, and yet communism is the problem for the world since 1918.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!