What to Read on Communism

Last night I picked up Leszek Kolakowski's Main Currents of Marxism: The Founders - The Golden Age - The Breakdown. It's over 1,200 pages long! Fortunately it's written as the authoritative reference on the history of Marxist political thought. Plus, I'm right in the middle of Aaron Klein's, The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists. I'm going to finish that before I start any new books, although I'm also looking forward to Harvey Klehr's The Communist Experience in America: A Political and Social History.

I'm reengaging Marxist literature since we're in the middle of a revival of radicalism in the Democratic Party, in the blogosphere, and in the nearly constant hardline protest movements on the streets (seemingly empowered by our current "crisis of capitalism").

There's a brief bibliography on communism at Foreign Affairs, "What to Read on Communism." And see also Donald Sassoon, "Seeing Red: Why Communism Really Failed."

And at the Amazon carousel, I've read (or am currently reading) all the works listed with the exception of Klehr: