The invitation from Middlebury College to speak about my book The Demon in Democracy came last year. I was pleased to receive it, as it seemed to indicate that the book resonated in American academic circles. Middlebury was the sixth or seventh university in America to have issued such an . . . . Continue Reading »
The thirtieth anniversary of Polish liberation from communism reminds us of the heritage of democratic life. Continue Reading »
We ought to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of communism’s defeat, but it is difficult to say what actually did the defeating. Continue Reading »
Between Two Millstones, Book 1: Sketches of Exile, 1974–1978 by aleksandr solzhenitsyn notre dame, 480 pages, $35 The first volume of Solzhenitsyn’s memoir of exile, Between Two Millstones, begins with the author’s expulsion from the Soviet Union and closes with him viewing the landscape . . . . Continue Reading »
What Solzhenitsyn faulted America (and the West more generally) for was its abandonment of its own moral and, especially, spiritual ideals and identity. Continue Reading »
Byliśmy głupi by marcin król czerwone i czarne, 256 pages, zł 39.90 Pravým okem: Antologie současného polského politického myšlení edited by maciej ruczaj and maciej szymanowski centrum pro studium demokracie a kultury, 203 pages, kč 249 Resistance to Communism in Eastern Europe was . . . . Continue Reading »
I am the last living blacklisted Hollywood writer. I can’t prove this any more than I could legally prove my blacklisting at the time. (The blacklist, after all, was an illegal conspiracy subject to lawsuits.) I am reasonably certain about this claim because I knew the Hollywood writers in . . . . Continue Reading »
Miłosz: A Biographyby andrzej franaszektranslated by aleksandra parker and michael parkerbelknap, 544 pages, $35 The impression left in the mind of an American reader, after he finishes Andrzej Franaszek’s exhaustive new biography of Czesław Miłosz, is the absurdity that this man was ever . . . . Continue Reading »
Trying to really believe in Communism now would be like trying to believe in Moloch or Anubis. The willingness to give up everything, which animated previous generations of revolutionaries, has vanished. Continue Reading »
The miniseries Comrade Detective ridicules the buddy cop genre, communist propaganda, and communism itself. Continue Reading »
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