How long does it take to read Blackshirts and Reds?
Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism
Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti takes about 3 hours 2 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 2 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1997. 165 pages, about 45,375 words.
7 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 5 hours 3 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 2 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 1 hour 53 minutes |
The page count is the median across 1 edition, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
A bold and entertaining exploration of the epic struggles of yesterday and today. Blackshirts & Reds explores some of the big issues of our time: fascism, capitalism, communism, revolution, democracy, and ecology. These terms are often bandied about, but seldom explored in the original and exciting way that has become Michael Parenti's trademark. Parenti shows how "rational fascism" renders service to capitalism, how corporate power undermines democracy, and how revolutions are a mass empowerment against the forces of exploitative privilege. He also maps out the external and internal forces that destroyed communism, and the disastrous impact of the "free-market" victory on eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He affirms the relevance of taboo ideologies like Marxism, demonstrating the importance of class analysis in understanding political realities and dealing with the ongoing collision between ecology and global corporatism. Written with lucid and compelling style, this book goes beyond truncated modes of thought, inviting us to entertain iconoclastic views, and to ask why things are as they are.
Subjects: Anti-communist movements, Capitalism, Communism, Fascism, Free enterprise, Post-communism
