Eastman’s Loves and Revolutions

Love and Revolution, by Max Eastman. Random House, $8.95 There were Communists who one day discovered that Communism was a false religion; and so they left it. Then there were Communists who one day discovered a true religion; and they therefore left Communism. And there also were Communists who discovered that Communism was a religion; whereupon they left the party in horror.

Because there is some truth in Ignazio Silone’s quip that the ultimate battle of the age will be fought between Communists and ex-Communists, the diagnostics of renegacy from Communism remains a relevant concern of scholars. In no language I know am I acquainted with a more rewarding volume than Max Eastman’s Love and Revolution. But then, this attractive autobiography of an attractive man will give insight and pleasure on many, and some more pertinent, grounds than mere scholarship.

WS

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William S. Schlamm

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Love and Revolution, by Max Eastman. Random House, $8.95 There were Communists who one day discovered that Communism was a false religion; and so they left it. Then there were Communists who one day discovered a true religion; and they therefore left Communism. And there also were Communists who discovered that Communism was a religion; whereupon they left the party in horror.

Because there is some truth in Ignazio Silone’s quip that the ultimate battle of the age will be fought between Communists and ex-Communists, the diagnostics of renegacy from Communism remains a relevant concern of scholars. In no language I know am I acquainted with a more rewarding volume than Max Eastman’s Love and Revolution. But then, this attractive autobiography of an attractive man will give insight and pleasure on many, and some more pertinent, grounds than mere scholarship.