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Forfatteren går gjennom NKP sin retorikk i den tidligere fasen av krigen og Tyske okkupasjonen

Kapittelet er i hovedsak en oppsummering av hendelsene som i dag brukes til å beskylde kommunistene for å være fascister "men på venstresiden"

Han nevner NKPs forsøk på å etablere en fredsavtale mellom Norge og Tyskland, i linje med kominternens ønsker

Kapittelet avsluttes ved å stille spørsmål om dette er hele historien

The first chapter is honestly terrible.

It can be summarised as this:

Freedman talks about the free market, he mentions only the (on the surface) good effects of it.

He then talks about socialism, which in his mind is when the state owns everything. He then gives examples of bad things the government would "inevitably" do, without explaining why it would do so, and then says that the free market would do better.

Freedman has been using a word, without so much as even a summarised definition, throughout the elleven page introduction: "Freedom".

What does Friedman define as Freedom? So far, he seems reluctant to say.

These elleven pages are also ripe with blatant lies; and example of which being: "free trade abroad was the means to link the nations of the world together peacefully and democratically"

A bad start.

A garbage chapter.

The author talks about how "noise" (in the media theory sense) is used to make you feel suspicious about people due to the news promoting useless information about them... and just... no, that is not the goal there. The goal is to distract from the useful information.

In what world would the example of "a politician is having a beer with his friend" cause you to feel suspicious of the politician?

As per the first chapter... this book is not that great. For a book that claims to be a guide on how to spot a fascist, it does a terrible job at teaching you; as it seemingly is confused on what a fascist is, itself!

From saying that fascists viewed the enlightenment as the birth of depravity, for some reason; to an unexplained contempt for intellectuals and their conflation with communists... nothing is explained.

We now see the gradual decline of the Roman empire, spurred on by the contradictions and complexity of the Roman system. We also see the Germanic Barbarians invade the bordering Roman provinces and, requiring a leader of these more complex Roman cities, installed the first true Kings, derived from Germanic military leaders with a thirst for power... etc etc etc and we arrive at feudalism.

The best chapter so far!

A longer and more complicated chapter, but I believe I understood his points

He talks of the traces of matriarchy in the patriarchal Germans (pulled from Roman accounts). He uses these traces to prove the universality of societal development; how all our societies seem to follow the same steps as we "progress", by pointing out the similarities with the Germans of Roman times and the late 1800's American Indians.

A rather short chapter, this one. It shows how the early Roman Republic had a major, historically important shift in its class structure: Previously, your class was largely determined by blood relations or membership of a tribe, but now ( roughly 500bc) it changed; Wealth gradually became the most defining trait of an individual and dictated his class position.

Short, but important

Finally, we arrive at the early forms of the state.

Engels (and Marx), through Morgans work, use the Greek heroic tales in a wonderful way to illustrate how the shift from the rather (primitive) communistic systems to monarchy occurred. Showing how early democracy, shifting to military-democracy under the foundations of the nation, paved the path rather efficiently to the system of hereditary power.

Amazing chapter

Slowly progressing towards the modern day. I had no idea there was this much information on ancient and indigenous societies.

The point of the book is slowly revealing itself. Each argument and example is making more and more sense.

A very comprehensive walkthrough of the evolution of the modern family so far!

If you consider yourself a feminist, I would say this book is a must read so far, as it truly seems to be the formula for understanding how the oppression of the woman began and evolved and how "woman" became a seperate class.

What a weird few pages... hoping he moves on from this point soon.

A few LESS details would be nice, but I guess, and hope, that it's important to mention for the whole theory...

The book is pretty nice so far. Engels has just now finished explaining the root of his theory, namely that human development could be divided into three stages: savagery, barbarism and civilisation; with each of these stages having a lower, middle and upper subdvision.

I think this idea is plausible, but I am skeptical of the Euro-centric view he repeatedly expresses.
I think he may be limiting his work as a result

Incredible book so far. Gowans shines a blindingly bright spotlight on the history of Korea both during Japanese occupation and under the current US occupation of the southern peninsula.

If you want a unique perspective on Korea, one you are guaranteed to have never heard from more official western outlets, this is the book for you.

Come into it with an open mind, it will change how you view current day Korea.