Mary Grabar. Resident Fellow, The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI), has recently reviewed To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism by Sean McMeekin. The American Spectator published Dr. Grabar’s review, “The History of Communism Must Not Be Repeated,” in the September 22 issue.
About five hundred pages in length, McMeekin’s volume is, she writes, “the kind of book that should be on everyone’s bookshelf. You will turn to it again and again.” Among the book’s strengths: He denies that communism is truly dead, and, indeed, he fears for the future in this respect.
Drawing on a wealth of published and archival sources in German, Russian, and English, McMeekin, a historian at Bard College, reinforces existing knowledge presented most notably by the legendary Sovietologist Richard Pipes and his slim classic Communism: A History published nearly a quarter of a century ago. But his work also abounds in “original insights.” After McMeekin’s analysis of the philosophical ancestry of communism, he provides a striking, century-long narrative of its history.
Even early communism, before it took control of Russia in 1917, could not tolerate criticism from others on the left—such as Mikhail Bakunin, a Russian anarchist, when he questioned the “dictatorial power of this learned minority.” The German Marxist Eduard Bernstein also “pointed out … that farmers did not want collectivization.” In the same arrogant spirit, the communists repeatedly “infiltrated and subverted reform parties and unions.” Organizations “such as the International Working Men’s Association that Marx created and then killed off” were later “turned into legends to inspire future generations.”
To Overthrow the World also instructively analyzes key episodes in the communists’ progress in seizing power. “Deceit and old-fashioned violence,” notes Dr. Grabar, “were the keys to revolutionary success.” Unlike Richard Pipes writing in the 1990s, McMeekin is not optimistic about the fall of communism having seen its dogged persistence around the world. As Dr. Grabar points out: “in China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos, Communist parties continue to rule.”
McMeekin further “warns about the continuing appeal of Communism” in the West where it is wedded to social-justice movements, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and intersectional struggles. The Covid pandemic, McMeekin asserts, stands as a warning of continuing communist influence. Think about it “[M]ost of the Western world is willing to follow ‘a hybrid Chinese Communist model of statist governance and social life, with ‘Communist-Chinese-style surveillance.”
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