To Overthrow the World

The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism

De: Sean McMeekin

Narrado por: Robert Fass

From an award-winning historian, a new global history of Communism

When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the world was certain that Communism was dead. Today, three decades later, it is clear that it was not. While Russia may no longer be Communist, Communism and sympathy for Communist ideas have proliferated across the globe.

In To Overthrow the World, Sean McMeekin investigates the evolution of Communism from a seductive ideal of a classless society into the ruling doctrine of tyrannical regimes. Tracing Communism’s ascent from theory to practice, McMeekin ranges from Karl Marx’s writings to the rise and fall of the USSR under Stalin to Mao’s rise to power in China to the acceleration of Communist or Communist-inspired policies around the world in the twenty-first century. McMeekin argues, however, that despite the endurance of Communism, it remains deeply unpopular as a political form. Where it has arisen, it has always arisen by force.

Blending historical narrative with cutting-edge scholarship, To Overthrow the World revolutionizes our understanding of the evolution of Communism—an idea that seemingly cannot die.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Sean McMeekin (P)2024 Basic Books

Reseñas de la Crítica

"This vivid history of communism, from the day Marx penned The Communist Manifesto in 1848 to the present, contains valuable insights, including that of Bakunin, the Russian anarchist, who immediately pointed out the crippling contradiction of Marxism—that it merely substitutes one power-hungry form of government for another. McMeekin follows this skeptical thread through the Soviet and Chinese experiences, from Lenin and Stalin to Mao and Xi, detailing the economic weakness and political madness of communist regimes in Europe and Asia that have been kept afloat over the decades as much by Western gullibility and indulgence as by their own ruthless, incompetent managers.”—Geoffrey Wawro, author of The Vietnam War: A Military History

“Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, many in the West were lulled into a sense of complacency. Fast forward to today, and the United States is locked in yet another struggle with a communist superpower even as our liberal system is under attack at home. In his thoroughly researched but readable and entertaining new book, historian Sean McMeekin charts the evolution of communism from Karl Marx to Tiananmen Square massacre, while explaining how this political system endured through the trials and tribulations of the 20th century. Students, scholars, and policymakers will all benefit from the lessons contained in this bold and lively book.”—Walter Russell Mead, author of The Arc of a Covenant

“With amazing scholarship, Sean McMeekin tells the story of the rise and fall of Communism in To Overthrow the World. The utopian promises of Communism have always led to dictatorship, bloody repression, and war. McMeekin punctures one myth after another, including the legend that the Soviets won World War II without much help from the West. Many people today are too young to remember the Cold War, and it is vital that they learn the facts about Communism found in To Overthrow the World.”—David Gordon, Senior Fellow, Ludwig von Mises Institute

What happened in 2020?

Excellent job in re-creating what has happened in the past two centuries as far as revolutionary thought and left wing, romantic ideology, communism. Show how that ideology has become so dominant within elite Western culture especially in United States, governing, legal, academic, and social culture.

Necessary reading for modern times!

Engaging exploration of the bloody history of communism. I thought more time would be dedicated to its modern sympathizers, but still a great read nonetheless

A great round up of Sean’s other titles

I’ve listened to some of Sean‘s books. This book summarizes the Russian Revolution and Stalin’s War. It goes all the way up to the modern era and sums up where we are at. Fantastic book.

An Excellent book

This book is well written،accurately researched and documented,full of knowledge,it tells you the intellectual and political history of Communism from it's first beginning as a simple idea as a Utopia city from the Greek philosopher Plato,and how it has been developed,changed until it's been a bloody reality in the Soviet Union,you will be shocked with the huge amount of horrors,torture, massacre and blood shedding that has been practiced to the application of this Satanic idea communism,highly recommended to anyone who is interested in communism,Marxism or even the Modern history.

An informative tale of plots and revolution that, tragically, loses the plot itself

I was first introduced to Mr. McMeekin through his title Ottoman Endgame, in which he wrote with penetrating insight about a time and place that is often impenetrable to western laymen. When I saw this work about Communism was soon to be published on Audible, I leapt at the opportunity to listen. Of particular interest was his title, which promised to treat Communism in our post-post-cold-war era with due respect.

And, to a great extent, Mr. McMeekin succeeds in delivering an informative and entertaining work. He is unfailingly critical of Communism, to be sure, but this results in a healthy skepticism towards the legends Communism has spun around itself, and which often ensnare other authors. He is very willing to implicate Soviet Communism in the catastrophe of World War II, for instance, puncturing the common Communist claim that it was the first and greatest enemy of Fascism. He also takes an early and bold stance that Communism in *practice*, if not in theory, has essentially always resulted in totalitarian dictatorship, varied only in degree and not in essence.

But the quality of the work begins to decline the closer to contemporary politics it gets, and this is largely due to McMeekin’s focus on Communism as actually practiced as opposed to its ideological content.

Past the early Cold War, McMeekin spends very little time covering the often real differences in Communism, even when they had important consequences. The critical doctrinal difference between Maoism and Leninism, for instance (that in the former, the peasantry *is* the revolutionary class, rather than just capable of allying with the revolutionary class as in the latter) was barely mentioned, despite helping to drive the Sino-Soviet split and having implications for the severity of the CCP’s worst excesses. The differences inherent to Tito’s Yugoslavia are barely discussed. A much better depiction of Central European Communism in practice can be gleaned from recent regional histories. In short, the work eventually elides into something closer to a state-level history of the Cold War than a history of one of its ideologies.

This problem reaches its climax in the concluding, post Cold-War chapters, in which McMeekin’s earlier focus on Communism’s form rather than color metastasizes into a bizarre conclusion that totalitarianism essentially *is* Communism. Laying the blame for things such as the USA’s post-9/11 surveillance state on imitation of Communist China, ignoring the fact that it was installed chiefly by Conservative Reaganites, with different motives and intentions, which do actually matter in the long term.

The most disappointing aspect of the title, in light of, well, its title, is that in consequence McMeekin spends absolutely no time talking about the resurgence of overtly Marxist ideas among the disaffected youth of the West. Much ink has been spilled discussing the swerve of GenZ and younger cohorts to the illiberal *right*, but little serious popular discussion has yet been aired about the similar movement to the illiberal *left*. This could have made this title one of the most timely and incisive works on Communism in recent history. The actual lazy gloss we received at the work’s conclusion is this particularly anticlimactic.

Overall, this book is still far from unsalvageable. But it fails to rise above being a general history of Communism with a critical perspective. Given McMeekin’s talents, that is a pity.