Replies

The Gulag Archipelago

4 posted on 09/20/2009 11:15:15 AM PDT by Talisker (When you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be damn sure it didn't get there on it's own.)

6 posted on 09/20/2009 11:17:06 AM PDT by SumProVita (Cogito, ergo...Sum Pro Vita. (Modified Decartes))

“The Gulag Archipelago” is good. “We the Living” by Ayn Rand

15 posted on 09/20/2009 11:26:05 AM PDT by CDFingers (Free Massachusetts)

My first instinct would have been the shorter “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” — that really captured what the reality of Communism was all about. If this person wants something closer to home, how about “Witness”?

33 posted on 09/20/2009 12:53:01 PM PDT by ReleaseTheHounds ("The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.")

The problem with attacking communism politically is that people are stubborn. They will always have wiggle room to say “well, that was just the Soviet Union, if the right people had been in charge blah blah blah.”

Communism began as economics. As economics showed that communism wouldn’t work, it became a purely political movement. Attack communism from an economic angle—the calculation problem. Communism could have the kindest, wisest, and most well-intentioned people in charge and it would still fail *for economic reasons*. Begin with basic econ so they can understand, then bring on Hayekian price theory to deliver the crushing blow.

Economics in One Lesson by Hazlitt.
Basic Economics by Sowell
Economics for Dummies
Naked Economics (not my fave but it is easy for laypeople to read and get started with)

Then move onto Capitalism and Freedom and the Road to Serfdom.

40 posted on 09/20/2009 1:47:08 PM PDT by LifeComesFirst (Until the unborn are free, nobody is free.)

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