Product Description

Excerpts from nine of the most widely read Gulag books. In addition to providing a ghastly record of Communist terror, the Critchlows also explain why Western readers developed such deep mistrust of peaceful coexistence with any Communist nation. The Critchlows have rendered a signal service to scholarship by providing attention, access, and background to this historically important literature. --John Earl Haynes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1104764 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-21
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .76 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Booklist
Excerpted from 10 personal accounts of imprisonment in Communist gulags, this anthology represents the camp literature that galvanized American anti-Communist activists from the 1950s onward. This may seem a historical rather than a contemporary topic, yet the collection's inclusion of writings by people imprisoned in countries that still operate political gulags--China, Cuba, and Vietnam--merits consideration. The Critchlows preface each piece with a summary of its impact on anti-Communist opinion and its conviction that Communist regimes were inhumane, untrustworthy, and inimical to religion. The editors argue that Catholics, especially, were receptive to this material (Phyllis Schlafly became prominent championing Hungary's Cardinal Mindszenty). Indeed Christ-like suffering is the overt structure of two testaments by priests, one tortured in China, the other in Romania. Less religious anti-Communist sentiment will also find ample material for outrage at the physical and mental debasement intentionally inflicted on these prisoners. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
The Critchlows have rendered a signal service by providing attention, access, and background to this historically important literature. (Haynes, John Earl )

These accounts by largely forgotten figures [offer] a strength in the face of the inversion of truth and rationality that is incomprehensible. (Tim Marchman New York Sun )

This book provides shocking insight into the workings of communism and, therefore, into the Cold War itself. (Conservativenet )

These stories should not only be read for the lessons they can teach us about socialism. They should be read because they are great literature, human drama, and an inspiration to everyone who will ever face adversity. (Conservative Monitor )

The stories told and retold here...make for painful but necessary reading.... What they have to say we must never forget. (First Things )

The narratives collected...exemplify...the abuses of human rights in Communist states and act...as landmarks in...history... (The Russian Review )

Powerful and revealing information about the human costs of the attempted applications of Marxism-Leninism… (Paul Hollander Journal Of Cold War Studies )

These memoirs pose important questions about the monolithic character of communist ideology. (Karla Cruise Slavic and East European Journal )

Critchlow contributes greatly to our understanding of American politics in the last half of the twentieth century. (Jonathan J. Bean )

From the Publisher
In this book, Donald Critchlow has selected excerpts from nine of the most widely read books from the powerful genre of Gulag literature.