About the Author

Archie Brown is Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford University. With The Rise and Fall of Communism, he has won the W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize of the Political Studies Association of the UK for best political science book of the year for a second time. He also received that award for one of his earlier books, The Gorbachev Factor. He lives in England.

Reviews

"Archie Brown's The Rise and Fall of Communsm is a rare thing, meticulously researched history that is immensely readable and, even better, a disinterested overview of the most deeply divisive topic of the past 100 years that has been highly praised by critics on the Right and Left".--Australian Nonfiction Books of the Year
"[Brown's] account is studded with delightfully pertinent and pithy personal observations and anecdotes...It is easy to be polemical about communism. Mr. Brown strives to be fair-minded...As a single-volume account of mankind's biggest mistake, Mr. Brown's book is hard to beat."--The Economist
"A riveting and magisterial work."--Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution and author of THE GREAT EXPERIMENT
"A sweeping, engrossing history. . . . Brown does a fine job of describing the social and political conditions that led people to embrace communism. And how, when the charms of the system wore off, these people found themselves ensnared by a totalitarianism that gave them no way to opt out."--Dallas Morning News
"Condensed with information that is both well-researched and well-placed within textbook history, [Brown's] book is a rewarding read. It is an important book for the time--a sober reflection on the physical, objective results of ideological thought."--Sacramento Book Review
"Consistently superb"--Dwight Garner, New York Times
"For decades this volume will remain a definitive study of communism."--Literary Review (UK)
"Historical writing and political analysis of the highest order."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Ranging wisely and lucidly across the decades and around the world, this is a splendid book."--William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
"Readable and judicious...both controversial and commonsensical...'The Rise and Fall of Communism' is a work of considerable delicacy and nuance."--Salon.com
"This book requires and deserves space on all important book shelves for decades to come."--Gary Hart, United States Senator (Ret.)