Political Pilgrims: Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China and Cuba, 1928-1978

This is an awesome book which helps the reader understand why intellectuals always seem to be on the wrong side of history. They loved Communism even when it was obvious that Lenin & Stalin were exterminating hoards of people! They are defective in their thinking and they stick to it. The author has a quote at the beginning of the book. "A GREAT DEAL OF INTELLEGENCE CAN BE INVESTED IN IGNORANCE WHEN THE NEED FOR ILLUSION IS DEEP." (Saul Bellows) . This book walks you through the 'needs' that these intellectuals seem to have which continually seems to cause them to deny the stark realities around them & cling to their 'ideologies'. I am so glad I read this book as I just laugh now when I hear so much of what is on the news. I GET IT!

Hollander puts the selective moral outrage and selective acceptance of evidence of the Left on parade as he follows these blinkered one's through the various Potemkin Villages of the Totalitarians, from the October revolution forward into most of the 20th century. Smug arrogance knows no political party or religious faith, no gender, race or sexual preference, it seems to be evenly spread among us. In this instance the highly developed capacity for self-deception of the Left is on trial and an amusing trial at that. Their tortured explanations of the intellectually unexplainable are a fictive of mankind's marvelous ability "to transform things to the liking of his desires".Like all those who are "blowin' in the wind", these intellectual hard heads do not seek truth, but instead to validate their worldview. This book is a study of intellectuals, estrangement and its consequences.

In this fascinating book, Paul Hollander exposes the self deception of 19th and 20th century intellectuals. In their search for the perfect society, they wander from Revolutionary Russia to modern-day Cuba. In spite of massive evidence of human rights abuse, including genocide, false imprisonments, and confiscation of private property, the political pilgrims never waver in their loyalty to failed, left-wing ideals. They journey onward after each "socialist" failure, with the fervor of religious converts.This book is meticulously documented and easy to read. Highly recommended.

Paul Hollander is one of our best critics of the kind of foolishness that motivates intellectuals today and has done so for centuries. This book is well worth reading. It demonstrates most amply Hollander's contention that intellectuals are not characterized solely by their critical abilities and habits. Rather, as Hollander points out time and again, they are also characterized by their opportunistic use of these abilities, and by their incredible credulity. Sartre is only one case in point: his fabulous skepticism is employed to prevent himself from coming face to face with the fact that Stalin was a monster and that Marxism could neither save a nation nor prevent mass murder. Our hyper-politicized faculty on Kampus today employ the same kinds of denial and opportunistic critique to save thier silly beliefs in the beneficence of multiculturalism, in the existence of patriarchy and in the explanatory power of cultural critique. Hollander's book is a must read for anyone who needs distance from the nonsense of our postmodernists, deconstructionists and other allegedly radical dogmas of the aging flower children. All of them practice selective attention to their critical principles, scepticism for their enemies, and utter credultiy for their pals.

I read this book on a suggestion from an Economics professor at George Masoh University. I was doing some research about some American views of the Soviet Union while Stalin was murdering his people and my professor enlightened me towards this incredible read. It was indeed a hard book to come across, mine was the only school in the entire Metropolitan DC area to hold this. So, I considered myself lucky. And after reading with passion every single word, I now consider myself educated. For those who are fans of George Bernard Shaw, read this at your own peril. While Mr. Shaw was bordering a train heading into the Soviet Union, he threw all his food on the roadside in Poland, in belief that food in the USSR was readily available. Indeed, it was for him and the other Americans the Russians wanted to use to spread their Communist propaganda, but little did these utopian-minded citizens know, millions upon millions were being murdered right under their noses in this great utopia. Of course murder didn't stop these peaceful leftists from looking at the grim realities of life under socialism. They still found ways in which to exalt the virtues of government planned society. After the guilt overcame them in regards to the murders of Stalin, they took to Cuba. Unfortunately for them, same game plan under Castro, same result, millions of innocents dead. Realizing Cuba was not the great utopia, these American leftists took to China and Mao. AHHHH? If only these people would live the "true" socialist way. If only socialism was allowed to flourish in its true nature, with peace and love for everyone. A few peiple get murdered along the way? Its too bad but the good of the nation is more important. Hollander outlines this perfectly. Three cheers for him and for the people who have the guts to read this wonderful book.