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Killing History: The False Left-Right Political Spectrum and the Battle between the 'Free Left' and the 'Statist Left'
Almost everything about the political spectrum is dead wrong. If the two polar opposites are Communism versus Fascism, what is in the middle? If the middle is halfway between Communism and Fascism, then everyone not on the extreme ends must be half-communist and half-fascist? Nobody believes that, but the old political spectrum prescribes that exact political scenario. So what happened? In an effort to rewrite history, the political dichotomy has been deliberately broken, falsified, sabotaged, and made meaningless, causing the public to lose their way through the contorted political maze. The political spectrum is not only a false dichotomy, but also has been rendered contradictory and ludicrous. Many political scientists still maintain that the spectrum stretches from authoritarianism on the one polar extreme to authoritarianism on the other, leaving the middle stranded within a disturbing range of authoritarian features. This faulty designation makes the left-right model of politics a confusing mess. There must be a way to discover which political side is truly in line with one’s own philosophical beliefs. There must be a way to find meaningful coordinates and redraw the political map. This book attempts to do that, taking the approach of a political cartographer determined to produce accurate charts for pilgrims traveling the rough political landscape.Along this way, many shocking historical facts are revealed that put the old political spectrum in danger of being exposed as unreliable. For instance, Mussolini advocated Marxism for over two decades while he associated with Lenin and Trotsky. During six of those years, he was an avowed Marxist heretic and an Italian Fascist, commingled the two into a Fascist–Marxist duopoly. In 1919, a red armband-wearing Hitler became an elected official in the communist-operated Bavarian Soviet Republic; he recanted under arrest and then identified himself as a “Social Democrat.” Most of the major Nazi and Fascist leaders were Marxists, former Marxists or hard-core socialists. And a number of major historians now assert that Fascism and revolutionary syndicalism flowed out of Marxism, writing that Fascism could be considered as either a “variety” or a “very specific revision of Marxism.” With well over 1,500 footnotes from historians and political scientists, this book refurbishes the political spectrum and restores it to its original French Revolution roots and classical liberal tradition. With a slew of historical facts in hand, anyone can now navigate the political swamplands with a faithful compass to triangulate one’s own political position and peel back layers of distorted history.
597 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 12, 2019
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213 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 4, 2022
2020-05-28 - Just finished this a couple days ago. Been reading since December. Soooo much interesting material in this book.
Note on the rating: I rounded up my thought that it should be a 3.6-3.8 to 4 stars. The book has really important insights and historical material, but the repetition of various statements/historical descriptions, overlapping topics, long length and pretty esoteric specifics of some political terminologies keep me from fully giving this a 4 star rating.
The descriptions of and quotations from Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini may blow your mind.
The spine-chilling things that George Bernard Shaw said and did are unconscionable, when you consider how his work enabled the early delusions fueled by all the propaganda about what Hitler and Stalin were all about.
The footnotes in the book are phenomenal - a treasure trove of references on the top leaders of the world and where they really stood on crucial issues at various times.
I highlighted about 200 passages and made extensive notes so am hoping to share some of those when I have a bit more time.
The writing style is generally quite good - very engaging, often down to earth, and surprisingly in-touch with basic values (life, liberty and pursuit of happiness). Here's a passage I especially thought catchy and perfect to describe how the term "liberal" morphed from being pro-liberty to being pro-authoritarian: "not only had progressives and post-liberals released the autocratic genie from the bottle, but they had thrown away the cork."
One topic that is covered extensively in the book that I found invaluable is the connection between major "leftist"/communist/socialist/fascist figures and parties with anti-Semitic words and deeds. Tracing this history back 200 years, with damning quotations, references and actions, the connection is made incredibly robustly. If you thought that Antisemitism was just a "right-wing" thing, you will be shocked and amazed.
Warnings - 1. Some of the language can be pretty arcane, or even made up. I found that off-putting. Here's one that is cute though: "liberticidal" - I think I might start using that one.
2. The subtitle of the book is indeed the main topic of the book, but leads to some pretty confusing references to common terms. For instance the term "liberal" - when used, is too often unclear which meaning is meant: modern day US (quite pro-statism) or original classical liberal (pro-individualism/liberty)? The switches back and forth can be jarring and confusing.
3. A pretty hefty # of typos - but this should improve with time and later editions, that the author has assured me will come.
More to come...
Note on the rating: I rounded up my thought that it should be a 3.6-3.8 to 4 stars. The book has really important insights and historical material, but the repetition of various statements/historical descriptions, overlapping topics, long length and pretty esoteric specifics of some political terminologies keep me from fully giving this a 4 star rating.
The descriptions of and quotations from Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini may blow your mind.
The spine-chilling things that George Bernard Shaw said and did are unconscionable, when you consider how his work enabled the early delusions fueled by all the propaganda about what Hitler and Stalin were all about.
The footnotes in the book are phenomenal - a treasure trove of references on the top leaders of the world and where they really stood on crucial issues at various times.
I highlighted about 200 passages and made extensive notes so am hoping to share some of those when I have a bit more time.
The writing style is generally quite good - very engaging, often down to earth, and surprisingly in-touch with basic values (life, liberty and pursuit of happiness). Here's a passage I especially thought catchy and perfect to describe how the term "liberal" morphed from being pro-liberty to being pro-authoritarian: "not only had progressives and post-liberals released the autocratic genie from the bottle, but they had thrown away the cork."
One topic that is covered extensively in the book that I found invaluable is the connection between major "leftist"/communist/socialist/fascist figures and parties with anti-Semitic words and deeds. Tracing this history back 200 years, with damning quotations, references and actions, the connection is made incredibly robustly. If you thought that Antisemitism was just a "right-wing" thing, you will be shocked and amazed.
Warnings - 1. Some of the language can be pretty arcane, or even made up. I found that off-putting. Here's one that is cute though: "liberticidal" - I think I might start using that one.
2. The subtitle of the book is indeed the main topic of the book, but leads to some pretty confusing references to common terms. For instance the term "liberal" - when used, is too often unclear which meaning is meant: modern day US (quite pro-statism) or original classical liberal (pro-individualism/liberty)? The switches back and forth can be jarring and confusing.
3. A pretty hefty # of typos - but this should improve with time and later editions, that the author has assured me will come.
More to come...
April 11, 2020
I appreciated reading Killing History because of the well-presented insights into the manner we understand history. I appreciated the technique used by the author to debate Communism, Marxism, Fascism and Nazism. This book presents an in-depth insight into cognitive thinking embedded in historical thinking theories. I recommend this reading to any reader interested in the fields of history. If you a reader who enjoys studying diverse social-political phenomena and historical events that changed the course of humankind, this book is for you.
June 18, 2020
Great author and book!
Fantastic book. I hope people read it! Very detailed and very well cited. Tells the truth about historical facts that were hidden from the public.
Fantastic book. I hope people read it! Very detailed and very well cited. Tells the truth about historical facts that were hidden from the public.
October 30, 2024
This is a fascinating book
Premise that the modern left is more related to Nazism and fascism than freedom and equality
He traces classical liberalism from John Locke. How do the French revolution to the 19th and 20th centuries
He basically says that to say Nazism and communism a polar opposite is wrong
He gets the basis of his argument from the original French assembly, just after the first revolution in 1789
He shows that those who sat on the left side of the chamber, where freethinking free market limited government people, so that sat on the right of the chamber, where authoritarian and believe the government should be big and rule peoples lives
He goes on to show that Nazism and communism should be put on external right of the chamber, because of their authoritarian leaning
Samuael goes on to show how fat is in a Nazism, where the children of 19th-century socialism, and Hitler and Mussolini, where national socialist instead of international socialist
He traces the thoughts of collectivism through the 19th and 20th century, and showing that collectivist main enemy was classical liberals
He also goes on to argue that this has been somewhat covered up in modern historiography so the status left could infiltrate modern, liberal Western democracies
Samuael points out that Franklin D Roosevelt, Lyndon, Johnson and Woodrow Wilson oh favourable to a form of socialism that was close to Mussolini, or even Hitler
Samuael is a libertarian and his passionate about limited government tax cut in and keeping the government out of peoples every day life
He calls himself a modern day classical liberal
This is an interesting book, however, even though he chased are thinking of classical liberalism it still doesn’t answer some question of how to protect society from four examples drug use pornography or sexual deviancy. I believe Samuael would say that people should he said who is that you should let them do it however this could affect the community and the nation asWell
Premise that the modern left is more related to Nazism and fascism than freedom and equality
He traces classical liberalism from John Locke. How do the French revolution to the 19th and 20th centuries
He basically says that to say Nazism and communism a polar opposite is wrong
He gets the basis of his argument from the original French assembly, just after the first revolution in 1789
He shows that those who sat on the left side of the chamber, where freethinking free market limited government people, so that sat on the right of the chamber, where authoritarian and believe the government should be big and rule peoples lives
He goes on to show that Nazism and communism should be put on external right of the chamber, because of their authoritarian leaning
Samuael goes on to show how fat is in a Nazism, where the children of 19th-century socialism, and Hitler and Mussolini, where national socialist instead of international socialist
He traces the thoughts of collectivism through the 19th and 20th century, and showing that collectivist main enemy was classical liberals
He also goes on to argue that this has been somewhat covered up in modern historiography so the status left could infiltrate modern, liberal Western democracies
Samuael points out that Franklin D Roosevelt, Lyndon, Johnson and Woodrow Wilson oh favourable to a form of socialism that was close to Mussolini, or even Hitler
Samuael is a libertarian and his passionate about limited government tax cut in and keeping the government out of peoples every day life
He calls himself a modern day classical liberal
This is an interesting book, however, even though he chased are thinking of classical liberalism it still doesn’t answer some question of how to protect society from four examples drug use pornography or sexual deviancy. I believe Samuael would say that people should he said who is that you should let them do it however this could affect the community and the nation asWell
April 9, 2024
Really nice book. Should be a classical textbook for most leftists.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews