Great book

Great book but the reader has a very annoying "ibit" tick that distracts from the story in a shallow way. Information wise, excellent read

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Great narrator but audio presentation needed more thought.

The narrator is great, but this book is very quote heavy. More or less the first 2/3 of the book deals with how various media outlets portray socialist states & much of this is directly quoted text. As a listener, this makes it very, very difficult to keep track of what is a quote & what is the author’s own own writing. This should have used a bare minimum of two different narrators, but probably three, so that direct quotes could have their own narrator voice. The narrator was also told to read aloud the various reference markers that are useless to a listener as there are no references to reference.

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4 people found this helpful

Interesting if repetitive to prove the point

First and last or second last chapters are where the really interesting discussion takes place, the other chapters are the case studies to prove the point.

Tracks left wing observers reactions to Socialist experiments and proposes a pattern of celebrating a new utopia in the making, portraying all problems as caused by enemies of socialism, then denying the experiment was real socialism.

Argues that true Socialism is only ever seen the utopia it hopes to be, rather than a means of structuring society which appears to demonstrate repeated weaknesses.

Since it is trying to expose a pattern, each chapter can feel similar and anyone with limited knowledge of socialist countries' histories (like me) will lack context but the book is about how socialism is perceived, not executed so this isnt the fault of the book. Just be aware.

Delivery is fine though the American pronunciation is wrong for a number of words and idioms by the British author. Annoying but no deal breaker.

Good listen, recommended.

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Excellent book - poor narration

Kristian goes through his thesis very well showing that all socialist regimes were considered socialist at some point (most recently Venezuela but traditionally USSR, China, Cuba etc) and that every regime goes through three stages from extreme adulation by the chattering classes to the veneer coming off / doubts about the system, and finally to "that wasn't real socialism".

He also brought up many examples of Saint Jeremy and his comrades praising many of these regimes and making disparaging comments about victims of the regime (for example, Corbyn refers to Cuban emigres in the US escaping Communism as "the gangsters of Miami") which is important to help us remember how close we were to having that dangerous man in power and how we should do all we can to prevent that in the future.

The only issue I have with the audiobook is the narration - the narrator's style just doesn't fit the book.

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3 people found this helpful

Fascinating

What an excellent and comprehensive account of the failures of socialism presented in unsparing detail. Should be widely read and taught in history lessons in schools. Particularly interesting are the eulogies provided by naive, but clever people when visiting the hell hole countries afflicted by socialism.
Highly recommended.

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1 person found this helpful

well researched and and excellent use of examples.

Not as I was expecting, which was a right wing neocon rant. this book makes some very well sourced observations of hell la political theory can appear so appealing in essence but so destructive in practice .
This book is a must for anybody who wishes to engage in serious political debating. you will have all the ammunition you need and more if you you consume the facts in this book.

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several cautionary tales for the comrades.

A no holds barred trip around all our favourite totalitarian states, and yes it still doesn't work.

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2 people found this helpful

Great book, very illuminating.

The book is crucial in order to understand how the claims "socialism is a good idea but has been implemented badly" and "real socialism has never been tried", are false, untrue and absurd.
My only criticism is that I wish the reader was British, as the author is based in Britain and many of the references were UK centred.

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A timely proposition that deserves a revised edition

The bulk of this work is loose and recursive to the point of absurdity, but the epilogue, being an optimised reworking of a recent paper by the same author, shows what the whole might eventually become. Well worth a credit to get in on the beta.

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Amazing book perfect for our time

What an insightful and interesting narrative. While slightly repetitive, it is entertaining and hugely topical. Needs to be more celebrated and well known.

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1 person found this helpful