What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Why did the communist experiment, which was committed to equality, abundance, and a humane socialism, generate such oppressive, brutal, and totalitarian regimes and failed economies?
In what ways did communism have a global impact beyond those countries that were governed by communist parties?
What was the global significance of the cold war?
“The end of communism was as revolutionary as its beginning.” Do you agree with this statement?
Looking Back: What was distinctive about twentieth-century communist industrialization and modernization compared to the same processes in the West a century earlier?
Next Steps: For Further Study
Archie Brown, The Rise and Fall of Communism (2009). A global overview of the communist phenomenon in the twentieth century by a respected scholar.
Jung Chang, Wild Swans (2004). A compelling view of twentieth-century Chinese history through the eyes of three generations of women in a single family.
Timothy Check, Mao Zedong and China’s Revolutions (2002). A collection of documents about the Chinese Revolution and a fine introduction to the life of Mao.
John L. Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History (2005). An overview by one of the most highly regarded historians of the cold war.
Peter Kenez, A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End (1999). A thoughtful overview of the entire Soviet experience.
Robert Strayer, The Communist Experiment (2007). A comparative study of Soviet and Chinese communism.
“Mao Zedong Reference Archive,” http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao. A Web site offering the translated writings of Mao, including poetry and some images.
“Soviet Archives Exhibit,” http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/entrance.html. A rich Web site from the Library of Congress, focusing on the operation of the Soviet system and relations with the United States.