Enjoy Masters Of Deceit: The Story Of Communism In America And How To Fight It Executed By J. Edgar Hoover Listed As Softcover

now, of course, but good for a slice of's's history of some counterespionage information about Communism and its workings in the United States.
A lot of people here spied for the USSR, They got the atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb secrets and much else for a minimum of time and money, and that wherewithal affected the geopolitical world in many ways.


For a good historical perspective, the reader might consult Tim Weiner's "Enemies: A History of the FBI".
Both books are free at archiv, org. It's honestly just boring, and doesn't offer that much, Was hoping for insight but frankly need to cross check with other sources, Unclear whether he is reliable, also I have to assume he used a ghost writer This was on my bookshelf don't know where it came fromand it was a short read so I thought I would give it a try.
It was written inand it's interesting to see how things have changed and stayed the same, It was informative because I did not know anything about the Communist Party USA but it also made me realize I need to read more.
It's interesting to see how the Communist Party USA is now in the open and sponsoring such things as the One Nation Rally last week.
At the writing of this book that would have been hard to belive, Worth a read, especially to get a little bit of background on the Communist Party USA and a history of American sentiment toward communism in the United States.
/./Stars


Not impressed, Useful, perhaps, in a limited manner:
As a starter book on definitions: dialectics, materialism, utopia, various "isms" Stalinism, Socialism, Communism, Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism Bolshevism, Menshevism, etc.

As a starter on the history of communism: short sketches of wild Marx, refined Engels, ruthless Lenin, and brutal Stalin.

As a snapshot of the situation in the states in thes,
The rest is pretty painful, Lots of the arguments demonstrating the problems of communism are very poor,
But perhaps the biggest problems is the author's attachment to, . . Americanism! understood as an ideology gt not as patriotism, He can't fathom how anyone could possibly be opposed to the "American way of life", He argues for the Americanist Utopia over the promised Marxist Utopia,
He rejects socialism, chooses capitalism and liberalism and doesn't suppose there might be a third option! i, e. Catholicism!! A short review: read this after stumbling across it on my uni library shelves, A cold book written by a zealot, A man who deeply admired communism for its dedication and commitment, and who despised anyone who challenged the status quo.
A psychopath Why the frick did I read this book I'm still not entirely sure, but it has a lot to do with the fact that I was simply curious what J.
Edgar had to say. And that is probably the only somewhat acceptable reason to ever read this book,

Most of the book applies only to that time period in which Hoover was writing, Not that communism has stopped existing or even lost its appeal, but the almost scare tactics and the almost conspiracy theory that Hoover uses don't really have a place in our world anymore.
I mean, surely some people will find the book to the point, but those people have probably already learned enough about communism to form an opinion and then not bother with Hoover's book anyway.
The book certainly doesn't bring you up to the present day, either, obviously,

I also can't help but think that Hoover could have done a whole lot better to give the reader a sense of authority.
Yes, he was the director of the FBI at the time of writing, but he doesn't cite much of anything or tell you from where much of his quotations and things come.


What this book can be is an excellent introduction in learning how to write propaganda, I'm not saying one way or another whether Hoover was or is right about anything, but he certainly makes you think that he is obviously right and that you better start doing something about it.
Read the book in that light and this can be fun at times, This was a reread amp I gave itbecause for me this book frames that place in time amp defines the mindset in much of America.
Inmy school in suburban Chicago used Masters of Deceit as a text book,th ampth grade Social Studies classes spent September thru December studying this book amp the communist/socialist ideology.
It was a big deal, The school board had to approve, the PTA had to approve, Were we too young to know these brutal truths they wondered, All adults involved decided this knowledge would save us from the Communists tricks, To my knowledge that was the only year that hatred amp mistrust were taught in that school, Perhaps because some students became a little paranoid, some became bullying liars amp tattletales just like J Edgar himself, and some having been introduced to new ideas sought out more.
Many of us in the latter group became peace loving hippies, supporters of Socialized Medicine amp card carrying members of the ACLU.
My old teacher is most likely rolling over in her grave, Very interesting read. Author gives the reader a detailed description of what communism is and what their playbook is, From a book written in thes I can definitely see things happening today that follow the communism plan.
Its a constant struggle to fight it, In thes the author felt that Americans could step up and fight this, Today I think its more difficult, many are blind to their tactics, Writtenyears ago, I was blown away by how accurate of a picture is painted, the future of America if we let communism take over.
I even went to the communist party of America website out of curiosity and they are still speaking in the same language that J Edgar Hoover writes about in this book.
I'm really glad that I read it and I recommend it to anyone interested in the sanctity of freedom in America.
Hilarious or frightening, I can't tell which, and neither for the intended reasons, J. Edgar Hoover, if one reads anything about him written in more contemporary times, is known to be a bit, well, crazy.
And no stranger to the use of propaganda, Interesting that he writes a book part of which is devoted to exposing the vicious propaganda plots of the communist sympathizers living in's United States.
It reads like one long paranoid rant, It also puts into perspective the atrocious gamut of distracting political books that come out each election cycle in America, books that put forth a lot of rhetoric and agenda, yet never seem to really anticipate where the world or the country is truly headed.


NC Dry reading,

Looking at this reading from a neutral point, it is a paranoid and detailed one sided detail of a feared government.


The account includes the history and origin of communism,

Even a capitalist economy can be perverted by those in power as we are now seeing in many countries.
J. Edgar Hoover. Very complicated man.

Did not like communism,

Masters of Deceit is a period piece, from the right's most histrionic moment, With admiration for the already disgraced Senator Joseph McCarthy and just one year ahead of former President Truman's denunciation of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, Hoover's credibility is suspect.
Fifty years later, it is downright surreal,

I presume Hoover anticipated a bumpy ride on the promotion circuit, He comes out of the gate swinging, as if antagonizing the reader to form a hard, crusty defensebias, Those who make it past the introduction may actually wonder if their bias wasn't misplaced, Despite being heavily edited affairs, Hoover's brief biographies of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin are at least as competent as a Conservapedia.
com article. His assessment of the Soviet Union may have come right out of Darkness at Noon or Nineteen EightyFour and thus not the product of original scholarship, but they are not overly hyperbolic.


In fact, the first half of Masters of Deceit is so dull, it probably loses a great number of readers to fatigue.
This was the plan.

For those who stick it out to the/mark, the gloves come off! Hoover loses his mind in a delusional word salad.
His arguments careen off each other, alternately making zero sense and cancelling each other out, He fails to make the red "menace" at all menacing, Cautionary examples are more vague anecdote than anything there was this, . . uh lady and she was uh communist! And her family was, . . uh sad and had to eat cold sandwiches for dinner!,

His centerpiece the one incident in which the author moves from the vague into the specific tells the bonechilling tale of a local party cell's six year campaign to infiltrate a small labor union.
After six years, the operatives held offices in the union, Then infighting caused their cabal to implode, From what I can tell, they didn't actually do anything devious, Unless, that is, one counts the unintelligent, bumbling oaf public enemy number one, It seems bringing America to its knees consists entirely of publishing newsletters with circulation numbers in the triple digits.


Since one must rule out the existence of any actual threat to describe, the reader immediately wonders what Hoover's mission was in publishing Masters of Deceit.
It is as most already suspect: Hoover was a bigot and the most miserly species of rightwing hawk,

"The Party has operated hundreds of major fronts in practically every field of Party agitation: 'peace,' civil rights, protection of the foreignborn, support for political 'victims,' abolition of Hbomb tests, exploitation of nationality and minority groups.
"

And labor unions, And charity. And Well, you get the idea,

Translation: Hoover is opposed to "peace," civil rights, constitutional rights, labor/consumer protection, and charity, A group who distributed food assistance to flood victims in a time when the federal government did not automatically fill the role was dangerous.
The Scottsboro Boys weren't the victims of Jim Crow, they deserved worse than what they got, Hoover is, in short, in contempt of all things contemporary Americans consider decent,

Why What was significant into stimulate publication of Masters of Deceit As previously stated, Senator McCarthy was already in disgrace.
A Republican Eisenhower was in the White House the Senate was nearly perfectly balanced Democrats had a one seat majority Duane Eddy had a hit with his instrumental "Rebel Rouser" and The Olympics's baby liked "western movies.
" Everything seemed pretty groovy. Even if Hoover's fear was of a Democratic takeover, he had already served two Democratic presidents and a host of Democraticcontrolled congresses and would again.
Nothing in his manuscript is critical of Roosevelt, Truman, He never mentions New Dealers like Averell Harriman or Rex Tugwell, The highest ranking government official Hoover mentions is former Vice President Wallace for whom he's sympathetically forgiving for past "pink" transgressions.


My guess is that Hoover didn't criticize the Democratic party out of selfpreservation and an acknowledgment that he, himself, is associated with some of its most celebrated years.
Nevertheless, Masters of Deceit is an energetic, redblooded, Republican panic attack for the most stalwart cold warrior.
It's manic. It's crazy. It's hilarious at times. What, if anything, do modern readers stand to gain by undertaking it

Well, Masters of Deceit is instructive into the way fearmongering works as a strategy.
It also can be instrumental in evaluating the merit of fearmongering, when it is encountered in situ,

To determine if Hoover's theory of a communist threat is warranted, one may run a diagnostic of sorts: Hoover gives us the blueprint for communist takeover.
Go through the steps in your mind and ask yourself if it could work even in a vacuum, If it cannot it cannot, the thesis must be false, Thus, the warning is almost certainly propaganda,

In practice, apply the same concept to any manner of conspiracy theory, from the sophomoric perception of President Bush's "oil wars" to Glenn Beck's own red scare.
If the blueprint they provide could not work in practice, they are full of shit, Like J. Edgar Hoover.

Interesting. Complicated. Full of shit.





A very informative book, Very relevant to today's world, He handily exposes the evil of communism, It's worth a read folks, My personal view and opinion about this book was that it was a very complicated and opinionated book, You could tell by just reading the first chapter that it was written from a Americans view, I thought that the way he said things in the book could have been toned done a bit and it would have been easier to read and understand.
Other thing that was strange about this book is that there werent many citations, making his facts a little questionable.
One thing about this book is it kept me laughing, The seriousness about communism to J, Edgar was no joke

and it wasnt at the time to anyone, Although when read today, one can only hold in the laughter about the crazy accusations about the communists in America.
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