Includes bibliographical references (p. [623]-688) and index.

Pt. 1. Origins and development. The idea of communism ; Communism and socialism : the early years ; The Russian revolutions and civil war ; 'Building socialism' : Russia and the Soviet Union, 1917-40 ; International communism between the two world wars ; What do we mean by a communist system? -- Pt. 2. Communism ascendant. The appeals of communism ; Communism and the Second World War ; The communist takeovers in Europe : indigenous paths ; The communist takeovers in Europe : Soviet impositions ; The communists take power in China ; Post-war Stalinism and the break with Yugoslavia -- Pt. 3. Surviving without Stalin. Khrushchev and the Twentieth Party Congress ; Zig-zags on the road to 'communism' ; Revisionism and revolution in Eastern Europe ; Cuba : a Caribbean communist state ; China : from the 'Hundred Flowers' to 'Cultural Revolution' ; Communism in Asia and Africa ; The 'Prague Spring' ; 'The era of stagnation' : the Soviet Union under Brezhnev -- Pt. 4. Pluralizing pressures. The challenge from Poland : John Paul II, Lech Wałesa, and the rise of solidarity ; Reform in China : Deng Xiaoping and after ; The challenge of the West -- Pt. 5. Interpreting the fall of communism. Gorbachev, Perestroika, and the attempt to reform communism, 1985-87 ; The dismantling of Soviet communism, 1988-89 ; The end of communism in Europe ; The break-up of the Soviet state ; Why did communism last so long? ; What caused the collapse of communism? ; What's left of communism?

Traces the origins of the communist ideology through its collapse in many nations following Perestroika, in an extensively researched volume that also explores communism's current incarnations.

The Rise and Fall of Communism explores how and why Communists came to power; how they were able, in a variety of countries on different continents, to hold on to power for so long; and what brought about the downfall of so many Communist systems.--From publisher description.