Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism

Michael Parenti

Feb 2022 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon

About this audiobook

A bold and entertaining exploration of the epic struggles of yesterday and today. Blackshirts & Reds explores some of the big issues of our time: fascism, capitalism, communism, revolution, democracy, and ecology. These terms are often bandied about, but seldom explored in the original and exciting way that has become Michael Parenti's trademark. Parenti shows how "rational fascism" renders service to capitalism, how corporate power undermines democracy, and how revolutions are a mass empowerment against the forces of exploitative privilege. He also maps out the external and internal forces that destroyed communism, and the disastrous impact of the "free-market" victory on eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He affirms the relevance of taboo ideologies like Marxism, demonstrating the importance of class analysis in understanding political realities and dealing with the ongoing collision between ecology and global corporatism. Written with lucid and compelling style, this book goes beyond truncated modes of thought, inviting us to entertain iconoclastic views, and to ask why things are as they are.

Ratings and reviews

good claims, counter claims and evidence to support corporate fascist on their way to taking over the U.S. It could use an updated foreword now that it's been 30 years.

A weak and biased attempt to say how terrible capitalism is. Thinly veiled Marxist propaganda in serious need of both balance and an update.

As accurate today as it was when it was written.

About the author

Michael Parenti is the acclaimed author of more than twenty books, including, Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader, The Assassination of Julius Caesar, and The Culture Struggle. Visit him at michaelparenti.org.

Timothy Andres Pabon is an actor and Spanish and English voice-over artist/audiobook narrator from Washington DC. He has recorded over 140 books, one of which was nominated for a 2015 Society of Voice Arts and Sciences Award and another which received an AudioFile Earphones Award as part of an ensemble cast in 2014.