The Routledge History of Communism

The Routledge History of Communism offers a panoramic view of how our ways of studying Communism have changed radically since the 1990s, recognizing the more recent changes in our ways of studying it and asking new kinds of questions.

“Nearly two centuries after Marx and Engels first articulated its promise, communism continues to shape global politics and public debates. This rich edited volume offers a fresh, global history of communism that moves beyond elite perspectives to examine everyday life, revealing how ordinary people engaged with, adapted, and contested revolutionary ideals. A vital reference for historians and social scientists.”

Professor Kristen Ghodsee, Russian and East European Studies, University of Pennsylvania

“An excellent collection of essays that analyzes the achievements and failures of global communism in a balanced and thoughtful manner. The editors have made a wise decision to foreground the lived experiences of individuals and societies under communism rather than reprise the ideologies and biographies of individual leaders.”

Choi Chatterjee, Author of Russia in World History: A Transnational Approach

“Feinberg and Kirschenbaum’s goal was to showcase new approaches to the history of their topic by bringing together the work of a diverse range of contributors who share an interest in the lived experience of Communism … The result is an impressively wide-ranging volume that will provide much food for thought to readers interested in specific settings ranging from the former Soviet Union and Cold War era Hungary to twenty-first century China and Cuba, as well as in a broad array of comparative and transnational issues.”

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Editor of The Oxford History of Modern China

Melissa Feinberg is Professor of History at Rutgers University, USA. She is the author of Elusive Equality: Gender, Citizenship and the Limits of Democracy in Czechoslovakia, 1918–1950 (2006), Curtain of Lies: The Battle over Truth in Stalinist Eastern Europe (2017), and Communism in Eastern Europe (Routledge, 2022).

Lisa A. Kirschenbaum is Professor Emerita of History at West Chester University, USA. Her research explores how ordinary people navigated the traumas of the twentieth century. Her most recent book is Soviet Adventures in the Land of the Capitalists: Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip (2024).