Reminiscent of a sabre-toothed, unexpurgated Dickens

A moving account of the abuse of human rights in Australia, all the more valuable because it is written by an Australian writer

Pilger is a first-rate dissident journalist... Presents a harsh narrative of class, race and power; of the oppression and resistance, the betrayal and amnesia, that lie behind the sunny illustions of the Australian self-image

This is a patriotic book in the best sense, written in the belief that Australia deserves not old bromides and stereotypes, but the respect of critical appraisal... A necessary book for those of us who believe in the redeeming power of truth

Pilger's Australia is so different from the image conveyed abroad by films and TV soap operas, so different indeed from the way many Australians see themselves, as to be another country...but none of it alters one starkly apparent fact - he still loves the place.

Comprehensive and impressive

Archie Brown tells the history of these 70-odd years...with poise, a sense of balance and a judicious understanding of the differences between the varieties of communisms

A clear and expert account of the rise and fall of communism

A stimulating read, which provides valuable insights

His conclusions neatly balance the equally pertinent questions of why Communist systems collapse, and why they lasted so long

One of Britain's leading experts on communism provides a grimly humorous and richly anecdotal study

Scholarly, well-paced and critical...few can match him for insider knowledge

Balanced, insightful, illuminated by intriguing detail and flashes of humour, this worldwide panorama is a miracle of compression

This superb book gives the history of the ideology and the reasons for its decline

It reads like Sovietology rendered by John le Carré

The book is well written with flashes of mordant humour and sufficient records of personal foibles and institutional stupidity to keep the reader going through some dreadful moments of human history