The Passing of an Illusion: The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century by François Furet

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The late François Furet was acknowledged as this century's preeminent historian of the French Revolution. But several years before his untimely death, he turned his attention to the consequences and aftermath of another critical revolution in the history of the modern world—the Communist revolution. The result, Le passé d’une illusion, was published initially in France, where it was critically acclaimed and went on to be a bestseller. Not surprisingly, it also became a catalyst for discussion and controversy on both sides of the Atlantic. Now available in English, The Passing of an Illusion can be understood, certainly, as a study of Communism but also as a history of the myth of Communism as it was perpetuated by its admirers.

Furet brilliantly illuminates how the support for Communism and its embodiment, the Soviet Union, became virtually synonymous with “anti-Facism” and how this intellectually strategic arrangement reverberated through the West. During the first half of the century, to be against the Soviet Union (and its Communism), argues Furet, was tantamount to betraying the fight against Facism, despite the fact that both Fascism and Communism ultimately spring from the same nationalist impulse. Thus the struggle against Fascism resulted in the sanitizing or glorification of Communism. This whitewashing of the Soviet regime's excesses not only kept alive the myth and attractiveness of the Communist promise but had complex moral, intellectual, and political ramifications for the West.

Translated into thirteen languages, The Passing of an Illusion is a penetrating history of the ideological passions that have fueled and characterized the modern era and is the last full-length work by “one of the most influential men in contemporary France,” according to Tony Judt, and one of the most important historians of our era. It serves as a bold and sweeping effort to revise our understanding of the twentieth century.