2013/12/16 by Smith, Stephen Anthony 1952- · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Communism, Protests, Social Movements #European history and politics #Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics
paper · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602056.001.0001
openalex publication_date 2013/12/16 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/05
Until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, historians knew relatively little about the secretive world of communist states and parties. Since then, the opening of state, party and diplomatic archives of the former Eastern Bloc has released a flood of new documentation. The thirty-five essays in the <italic>Handbook</italic>, written by a highly international team of scholars, draw on this new material to offer a global history of communism in the twentieth century. In contrast to many histories that concentrate on the Soviet Union, it is genuinely global in its coverage, paying particular attention to the Chinese Revolution. It is ‘global’, too, in the sense that the essays seek to integrate history ‘from above’ and ‘from below’, to trace the complex mediations between state and society, and to explore the social and cultural as well as the political and economic realities that shaped the lives of citizens fated to live under communist rule. The essays reflect on the similarities and differences between communist states in order to situate them in their socio-political and cultural contexts and to capture their changing nature over time. <bold>W</bold>here appropriate, they also reflect on how the fortunes of international communism were shaped by the wider economic, political and cultural forces of the capitalist world. The <italic>Handbook</italic> provides an informative introduction for those new to the field and a comprehensive overview of the current state of scholarship for those seeking to deepen their understanding.