About this title: Written in Paris in the early 1950s, this book created instant controversy in its analysis of modern society that had allowed itself to be hypnotized by socio-political doctrines, and to accept totalitarian terror on the strength of a hypothetical future.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: First
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1955
Description: Very Good. No Jacket as Issued. A Vintage book originally published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. First Vintage Edition. Pages bright and clean. Binding tight. Spine and cover darkened by sun and age. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books, New York
Date Published: 1953
Description: Very Good. First Vintage Edition, light edge wear, no creases, small tear to back of spine, no marks inside, covers tanned on spine and edges. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Books
Date Published: 1990-12-01
ISBN-13:9780679728566ISBN:0679728562
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780679728566. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780679728566ISBN:0679728562
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780140189278ISBN:0140189270
Description: Very Good. VG(+) *SCARCE* 1997 2ND IMPRESSION BLUE SPINE PENGUIN 20TH C CLASSICS PB, STUNNING ORIGINAL ARCHIVE COVER PHOTO & NEW AUTHOR'S NOTE; IMMEDIATE 1st Class/Airmail dispatch fromUK COLLECTION ~~Please browse our Alibris storefront for more related items, combined postage available. Alibris UK Featured Seller 2009~~ read more
Edition: First Edition in English
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: Knopf, N.Y.
Date Published: 1953
Description: 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. xiv, 251p. A near fine copy, with the former owner's signature on the front free endpaper, in a fair to good price-clipped d.j. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: First Edition Stated
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Date Published: 1953
Description: Very Good+/No Dust Jacket. Bound in dark gray cloth with white lettering. Small ownership signature to fep, no other markings. Clean and tight. 252pp. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Limited Editions Club, New York City
Date Published: 1983
Description: Kapusta, Janusz. Fine. No Jacket. 4to-over 9¾"-12" tall. Fine tan cloth hardcover, oversized. SIGNED by both Milosz and Kapusta. With a New Preface by Author. Number 906 of 1500 copies. NO slipcase/jacket. read more
Edition: Limited Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Limited Editions Club, New York
Date Published: 1983
Description: Janusz Kapusta (illustrator) Fine Hardback in Fine Slipcase jacket. 8.5 x 11" Signed by Author and Illustrator A solid copy; This is copy #1283 of 1500 copies printed for this special Limited Edition; Signed by both Czeslaw and Kapusta; with special Kapusta lithograph laid in; This copy would make a nice gift; This is a large book and International orders will require additional postage; ----------SATISFACTION GUARANTEED---------FAST, COURTEOUS SERVICE------ALL DUSTJACKETS ARE COVERED WITH NEW ... read more
Edition: 1st Edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Date Published: 1953
Description: Translated from the Polish by Jane Zielonko. Subjects: Communism--Poland. Poland--Intellectual life--1945-1989. Fine cloth copy in a fair, somewhat torn (at back, with some loss) and dust-dulled dw, now mylar-sleeved. Remains particularly and surprisingly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and sharp-cornered. 1. pp. 251. read more
Edition: First Thus
Binding: Decorative Cloth
Publisher: Limited Editions, New York
Date Published: 1983
Description: Kapusta, Janusz. Fine. Limited, copy 172 of 1500, signed by author and illustrator, additional lithograph by Kapusta laid in, with very good slipcase. read more
Edition: Numbered
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Limited Editions Club, New York
Date Published: 1983
Description: Janusz Kapusta. Near Fine. Small Folio-8.5" x 11.5" Signed by the Illustrator. [LEC]. #544 of 1, 500 signed copies. Hardcover, bound in beige cloth with slipcase. Light shelf-wear. read more
"This book is really a 2.5 stars for the intriguing ideas to the reason communism is the worst system in the world. Communism treats individuals as clogs in the machine that is the communist society. Ironically in trying to free the proletariat from the emptiness of being a "machine" in the capitalist factories, communism creates a society in which all men feel like machines. Milosz created this book because he sees beauty in individuals that makes up humanity.
Until this book, I failed to see how Christianity and Democracy were similar. Their similarity lies in the fact they both champion the individual choice in deciding societies course whereas communism champions the group. Chritianity assumes that individual souls can choose to follow God or not and democracy assumes that the individual has a right to choose their government.
According to the book, communism arose as an intellectual thought of a few intelligentsia and created a "new faith" out of it. This faith destroys the concept of the individual and replaces it with the concept of society above all else and it is created by historical determinism not by a few individuals. Because the "new faith" is always correct it discourages introspection, anything new and innovative, and individual faith in religion.
According to the author, this causes the arts/writing to be sterile and little more than propaganda. The artist/writers/poets who participate in the socialist realism suffer the most because they cannot express what they truly think and feel but instead their published work is praised for its conformity. Even though they love the state material support and the popularity that they receive from producing such works that conform, the act of conformity itself is antithetical to the very soul of the creator and thus they suffer internally because of this dissonance in their life.
Ironically by enforcing this revolution onto people, the new faith destroys itself by being static, trapped in time.
In the end no wonder pure communism fails. It not only stifles the economy but also innovation but it also causes individual thought/ideas to be a crime."
"I wish I had been assigned this book back when I was studying socialist realism and Soviet intellectual history. A pithy and personal analysis of how authoritarianism functions in the aesthetic realm, written from the inside."
"A Polish, and later American, poet looks at Stalinist totalitarianism and its corrosive effect on mind, creativity, ethics, the soul. Some beautiful and clear insights into horrific events and times he experienced. Some are topical essays, some examples of people he knew. Powerful. Recommended. Should be on someone's top 1000 books of the 20th C."
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