Socialism 101

From the Bolsheviks and Karl Marx to Universal Healthcare and the Democratic Socialists, Everything You Need to Know about Socialism

By: Kathleen Sears

Narrated by: Samantha Desz

Socialism 101 is a comprehensive and accessible guide to the historical and modern applications of socialism.

In today’s political climate, more and more presidential candidates are espousing socialist—or democratic socialist—policies. Once associated with oppression, socialism is now a current topic of conversation with everyday Americans, including policies like taxing the rich and healthcare for all. But what exactly is socialism and why does it spark such an intense debate?

Socialism 101 provides an easy-to-understand, unbiased overview to the nearly 300-year-old origins of this mode of government, its complex history, basic constructs, modern-day interpretations, key figures in its development, and up-to-date concepts and policies in today’s world. As capitalism has become less appealing and socialism experiences a surge in popularity, the need for clarification of what it means has never been more necessary than now.

Easy to Read

Nice layout of history to now. I was not super familiar with socialism and I feel like this have a good start.

A Short Historical Account

This book is a brief overview of the history of socialism. It was unbiased and offered no commentary from the author - which has its pros and cons. It lists the major leaders and examples of socialism, but provides little interpretation or discussion. I feel that I'm now more familiar with the names, places, and events, but would struggle to tell you what socialism is. I found myself repetitively feeling there was not enough context to understand why the listed events happened, why they are important to know about the history of socialism, and what they mean for the theory of socialism. I think if they added a concluding section that compares/contrasts the wildly different examples it would help the reader to understand what is inherent to the theory of socialism, which aspects of the examples were just cultural nuances, and what no longer can be classified as socialist. I wish the book would have just said whether 'socialism' has been completely redefined to fit the opinions of new thinkers, or if these were just different models of socialism.

Brisk, but good, overview of socialist history

This was not exactly what I’d anticipated, but I ended up appreciating this book very much. It’s a bit like listening to someone reading a encyclopedia volume on the history of socialism, so was a bit off putting at first. I stuck with it and am glad I did—learned basic facts, names, places, dates about socialist movements around the world. Many books focus on Russia/Soviet Union or on Germany, but this book is more global in its perspective and I appreciated that. Pace is brisk and sections are often brief. Good outline from which to do more research on your own.

Not an introduction

It deals too little with actual socialism and is more of a gallery of people. Which is interesting in itself of course. But it is also not deep enough and some of the events listed have clearly been "washed in Washington" - watered down and in some cases erroneous depictions. There are better places to start ones journey of understanding socialism but at least it's something. Don't stop after this one, keep going!

dso movement in modern times and history.

I loved this book, end to end. I may play it again. thanks to the narrator.