In the long-awaited follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag, acclaimed journalist Anne Applebaum delivers a groundbreaking history of how Communism took over Eastern Europe after World War II and transformed in frightening fashion the individuals who came under its sway.
At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union to its surprise and delight found itself in control of a huge swath of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and...

The Iron Heel (1907) is a novel by American writer Jack London. A groundbreaking work of dystopian science fiction, The Iron Heel was, inspired by London's socialist views and belief in an eventual global upheaval. Although his predictions proved wrong for the United States of the early-twentieth century, London was, recognized by such figures as George Orwell for his foresight regarding the rise of fascism in Europe. The novel is, told from the perspective...

"By the middle of the twenty-first century, war, famine, economic collapse, and climate catastrophe had toppled the world's governments. In the 2050s, the insurrections reached the nerve center of global capitalism-New York City. This book, a collection of interviews with the people who made the revolution, was published to mark the twentieth anniversary of the New York Commune, a radically new social order forged in the ashes of capitalist collapse....

The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality by Austrian School economist and libertarian thinker Ludwig von Mises is an investigation into the psychological roots of the anti-capitalistic stance that is widespread in the general populations of the capitalist world. Von Mises suggests various reasons for this mentality, primarily his claim that free competition in the market economy allows no excuses of one's failures. Rather, he argues, it creates great incentive...

Oscar Wilde presents a libertarian socialist view of the economic disparities caused by capitalism, that lead to futile acts of charity instead of definitive solutions. Wilde encourages an overhaul of the structures that allow such inequalities to exist. The Soul of Man Under Socialism is an insightful look into Wilde's personal and political beliefs. Within the essay, he emphasizes individualism over group think, using Jesus Christ as a prime example....

First written in French and originally appearing as a series of articles in 1892, "The Conquest of Bread" is the most famous and enduring work by Peter Kropotkin, the Russian political philosopher and anarchist. In this widely influential and often cited work, Kropotkin presents his arguments against feudalism and capitalism. These economic systems rely on and perpetuate poverty, misery, and scarcity, while protecting and promoting the privilege of...

Lenin wrote State and Revolution in 1917, while he was hiding from the Russian secret police. The book describes the inherent nature of the State as, a tool for class oppression, a creation born of one social class's desire, to control all other social classes. Drawing on detailed quotes from Karl Marx and Friedrick Engels, Lenin lays down a Marxist view of the state, describes how a working-class revolution will overthrow it, and goes further in...

Written in 1844 as a series of notes, Marx's posthumously published critiques on the conditions of modern industrialist societies forms the foundation of the author's denunciation of capitalism. Combining elements of psychology, sociology, and anthropology, it is a profound examination of the human condition rooted in a philosophy of economics. In this concise treatise, Marx presents an indictment of capitalism and its threat to the working man, his...

"The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844" is the influential study of the hazards of the Industrial Revolution by the German philosopher Frederick Engels. This important contribution to the development of modern Socialism was written while Engels spent two years living in Manchester, England, the city traditionally viewed as where the Industrial Revolution began. Engels viewed England's productivity and efficiency in manufacturing to...

Mafia Spies is the definitive account of America's most remarkable espionage plots ever--with CIA agents, mob hit men, "kompromat" sex, presidential indiscretion, and James Bond-like killing devices together in a top-secret mystery full of surprise twists and deadly intrigue. In the early 1960s, two top gangsters, Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, were hired by the CIA to kill Cuba's Communist leader, Fidel Castro, only to wind up murdered themselves...