The Fellow-Travellers: A Postscript to the Enlightenment

New York, et al.: The Macmillam Company/Cambridge at the Uiversity Press, 1973. 1st Printing. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo or 8° (Medium Octavo): 7¾" x 9¾" tall. Robert Ziering (Jacket Illustrator). 433 pp. Solidly bound copy and dj with minimal external wear, crisp pages and clean text. Relevant newspaper article included from previous owner. Synopsis: Since the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, many distinguished Western intellectuals have felt a tremendous sympathy for the social systems of the Soviet Union, the "popular democracies" and Communist China. Some became Communist but many did not; more ambivalent in their commitment, they soon came to be known as fellow-travellers. - The fellow travellers included some of the most famous writers, scholars, philosophers, scientists and politicians of the century - the author demonstrates why and how the international communist movement harnessed to its own ends the reputations of these and other celebrated non-communists. While not evading moral judgements, he is concerned primarily with unravelling the motivations of intelligent men whose allegiance may in retrospect seem to have been misplaced. Above all, he forces us to think again about the great Soviet experiment and the criteria by which it can be judged.