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It's Not Over: Learning from the Socialist Experiment
The path to a better world can’t be found without knowledge of history. Thinking about the basic contours of a better world is a prerequisite to becoming effective in bringing about a better world. The march forward of human history is not a gift from gods above nor presents handed us from benevolent rulers, governments, institutions or markets � it is the product of collective human struggle on the ground.
The path to a better world can’t be found without knowledge of history. It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment analyzes the 20th century attempts to supplant capitalism in order to draw lessons with application to the emerging and future movements that seek to overcome the political and economic crises of today. This history is presented through the the words and actions of the men and women who made these revolutions, and the everyday experiences of the millions of people who put new revolutionary ideas into practice under the pressures of enormous internal and external forces. This is history that can be applied to today’s struggles to shape our world, in which new ideas are emerging to bring about the economic democracy that is indispensable to a rational and sustainable future.
Repeated economic crises and ongoing stagnation has led millions of people around the world to question the economic assumptions that they have long lived with, and to begin to seek out new ideas. As part of this process, people will inevitably look to the attempts to supplant capitalism in the past and want to know more about them. After frank examinations of the Soviet Union, the Prague Spring of Czechoslovakia and Sandinista Nicaragua, It’s Not Over concludes with a chapter on why we have the difficulties we do under capitalism, and ideas and discussion of what a better world might look like.
The path to a better world can’t be found without knowledge of history. It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment analyzes the 20th century attempts to supplant capitalism in order to draw lessons with application to the emerging and future movements that seek to overcome the political and economic crises of today. This history is presented through the the words and actions of the men and women who made these revolutions, and the everyday experiences of the millions of people who put new revolutionary ideas into practice under the pressures of enormous internal and external forces. This is history that can be applied to today’s struggles to shape our world, in which new ideas are emerging to bring about the economic democracy that is indispensable to a rational and sustainable future.
Repeated economic crises and ongoing stagnation has led millions of people around the world to question the economic assumptions that they have long lived with, and to begin to seek out new ideas. As part of this process, people will inevitably look to the attempts to supplant capitalism in the past and want to know more about them. After frank examinations of the Soviet Union, the Prague Spring of Czechoslovakia and Sandinista Nicaragua, It’s Not Over concludes with a chapter on why we have the difficulties we do under capitalism, and ideas and discussion of what a better world might look like.
992 pages, Paperback
First published February 26, 2016
14 people are currently reading
282 people want to read
About the author
Pete Dolack
4Ìýbooks22ÌýfollowersPete Dolack is an activist, writer, poet and photographer who wishes he could keep all those balls in the air but, alas, keeps dropping some of them.
He is the author of What Do We Need Bosses For?, a study of economic democracy and societies that sought to transcend capitalism; It's Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment, an analysis of the 20th century’s socialist experiments written with an eye toward doing it better in the 21st century; and the pamphlet Winners and Losers of Fascism, a study of fascism as it arose in various forms in the 20th century. He is currently at work on a book about the history of capitalism.
Pete writes about the ongoing economic crisis, and the environmental and political issues connected to it, on his Systemic Disorder blog. His writings have also appeared in dozens of periodicals and anthologies including CounterPunch and ZNet. He is also a former non-fiction editor for Mad Hatter’s Review.
As an activist, Pete has most recently worked with Trade Justice New York Metro, and in the past worked with several groups, including Amnesty International, National People’s Campaign, New York Workers Against Fascism, Brooklyn Greens/Green Party of New York and the No Spray Coalition.
He finds that photography is a good way to teach patience, in his case specializing in landscape abstracts.
He is the author of What Do We Need Bosses For?, a study of economic democracy and societies that sought to transcend capitalism; It's Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment, an analysis of the 20th century’s socialist experiments written with an eye toward doing it better in the 21st century; and the pamphlet Winners and Losers of Fascism, a study of fascism as it arose in various forms in the 20th century. He is currently at work on a book about the history of capitalism.
Pete writes about the ongoing economic crisis, and the environmental and political issues connected to it, on his Systemic Disorder blog. His writings have also appeared in dozens of periodicals and anthologies including CounterPunch and ZNet. He is also a former non-fiction editor for Mad Hatter’s Review.
As an activist, Pete has most recently worked with Trade Justice New York Metro, and in the past worked with several groups, including Amnesty International, National People’s Campaign, New York Workers Against Fascism, Brooklyn Greens/Green Party of New York and the No Spray Coalition.
He finds that photography is a good way to teach patience, in his case specializing in landscape abstracts.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 6, 2017
The history of the Soviet Union and other revolutions, such as the Sandinista Revolution, is difficult to understand because of the complexities involved and the layers of hostile literature against them, which inevitably colors our perceptions. I loved this book because it cuts through all that so well.
The author writes in a literary style making the book very easy and enjoyable to read, as if he was telling a story. The history is presented in a clear, accessible way that seems free of agendas. That is, the book looks at these events from the perspectives of those involved in them, and gives concrete reasons for what happened. I found it refreshing to be able to read about these events without the usual baggage and condemnations we are accustomed to.
You don't have to agree with the point of view of the author, or of the people involved in revolutions or the building of new societies, to find this book highly valuable. The sweep of history presented, and the follow-up chapter, which builds on the rest of the book to start a discussion (as the book puts it) on what better societies might look like. Not like the Soviet Union, but different from the capitalist societies of today.
I learned so much from reading this book and I can understand better why revolutions went the way that they did.
The author writes in a literary style making the book very easy and enjoyable to read, as if he was telling a story. The history is presented in a clear, accessible way that seems free of agendas. That is, the book looks at these events from the perspectives of those involved in them, and gives concrete reasons for what happened. I found it refreshing to be able to read about these events without the usual baggage and condemnations we are accustomed to.
You don't have to agree with the point of view of the author, or of the people involved in revolutions or the building of new societies, to find this book highly valuable. The sweep of history presented, and the follow-up chapter, which builds on the rest of the book to start a discussion (as the book puts it) on what better societies might look like. Not like the Soviet Union, but different from the capitalist societies of today.
I learned so much from reading this book and I can understand better why revolutions went the way that they did.
September 7, 2017
Don't be put off by the size of the book. I found it easy to read because it's very well written. Learned a lot from it.
November 23, 2017
I just finished reading "It's Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment." Pete Dolack's book is a serious look at what went right and what went wrong with the some of the revolutionary socialist experiments in the 20th Century. While the subject is way too big to cover in one book, by looking at the Soviet Union, the failure of the German Revolution (1919-1921), the Prague Spring, the Sandinista Revolution, and on to the collapse of the Soviet Union, while showing the depredations of finance capital throughout the world, enough territory is covered to understand a lot of the mechanics of what happened.
One of the most important themes of "It's Not Over," by comparing the different revolutions mentioned in the book, is that socialism does not have to follow the exact Soviet model. The myopic view of the Soviet leadership that it had a monopoly of Marxist understanding of revolution and socialism destroyed the advances in socialist practice in its own Eastern Bloc (the Prague Spring) was developing, prevented real solidarity with Third World anti-capitalist movements (the Sandinistas), and eventually lead to the destruction of the Soviet Union itself.
Dolack's critical examination of the Soviet Union, that is Stalinism and what followed it, is not a criticism of Marxism. Dolack is a Marxist. It's a criticism of turning Marxism into some sort of academic formula to create an orthodoxy. Marxism is a methodology, not a canon. Much of the Soviet version of Marxism was self-serving in order to cover up their own opportunism.
Dolack uses the narrow-minded orthodoxy championed by the Soviets as a mirror to explain its conflict with the narrow-minded orthodoxy of neoliberal economics as to how this world got to where it is today. In both cases the theory is alienated from reality. The difference is that Marxism is supposed to use dialectics to understand reality, and use that understanding in the cause of worldwide liberation of all of humanity, while neoliberalism is about justifying the brutality and inequality of the expropriation of surplus value by an elite through finance capital.
"It's Not Over" can help liberals and people with a hazy sense of dialectics learn about the contradictions that can arise with in socialism (Soviet Union), the problems of a mixed capitalist socialist economy (Nicaragua), and the possibilities that an advanced socialist proletariat can advance even beyond socialism itself (Czechoslovakia). Advanced Marxists can also use this book to fill in their own personal gaps of some of the history Dolack covers.
One of the most important themes of "It's Not Over," by comparing the different revolutions mentioned in the book, is that socialism does not have to follow the exact Soviet model. The myopic view of the Soviet leadership that it had a monopoly of Marxist understanding of revolution and socialism destroyed the advances in socialist practice in its own Eastern Bloc (the Prague Spring) was developing, prevented real solidarity with Third World anti-capitalist movements (the Sandinistas), and eventually lead to the destruction of the Soviet Union itself.
Dolack's critical examination of the Soviet Union, that is Stalinism and what followed it, is not a criticism of Marxism. Dolack is a Marxist. It's a criticism of turning Marxism into some sort of academic formula to create an orthodoxy. Marxism is a methodology, not a canon. Much of the Soviet version of Marxism was self-serving in order to cover up their own opportunism.
Dolack uses the narrow-minded orthodoxy championed by the Soviets as a mirror to explain its conflict with the narrow-minded orthodoxy of neoliberal economics as to how this world got to where it is today. In both cases the theory is alienated from reality. The difference is that Marxism is supposed to use dialectics to understand reality, and use that understanding in the cause of worldwide liberation of all of humanity, while neoliberalism is about justifying the brutality and inequality of the expropriation of surplus value by an elite through finance capital.
"It's Not Over" can help liberals and people with a hazy sense of dialectics learn about the contradictions that can arise with in socialism (Soviet Union), the problems of a mixed capitalist socialist economy (Nicaragua), and the possibilities that an advanced socialist proletariat can advance even beyond socialism itself (Czechoslovakia). Advanced Marxists can also use this book to fill in their own personal gaps of some of the history Dolack covers.
November 28, 2021
Excellent volume with a fabulous, accessible description of events leading up to the October Revolution. I found the organization of the book a bit counterintuitive (would have preferred the Russian Revolution - Stalinism - fall of USSR to be in order, followed by case studies). The final chapter read as a bit bombastic but I appreciated some of the points on multiparty elections.
July 6, 2022
Communist garbage.
Writing of Soviet Union without having ANY idea of the subject he is writing. Brainwashing tool. Low information idiot catering to other idiots
Writing of Soviet Union without having ANY idea of the subject he is writing. Brainwashing tool. Low information idiot catering to other idiots
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