Ronald Berman (1930–2022)

It’s unfortunate that this book is out of print. I doubt anyone but Solzhenitsyn agrees with everything he says in the famous 1978 Harvard commencement address, but his argument that the “free world” was not fundamentally much more free than the communist world can’t be easily dismissed (as some of the contemporary journalists represented in the book tried to do). And his conviction that Western capitalism and Eastern communism shared the same essentially purposeless and degrading show more materialism is also not easily dismissed. I think people misunderstand him when they think he’s advocating a return to Medieval Christianity. Certainly he’s Christian, and his is a Christian critique, but he doesn’t present a particular program in response to the issues he discusses. I think people also tended to mistakenly dismiss his ideas as narrowly Russian. It’s rare that something so fresh and challenging enters our public discourse, and I think we’d benefit from the perspective and challenge as much or even more today as when the address was given. show less

The recent (2016) audiobook edition is not recommended as the narrator's professorial drone makes it difficult to focus on the content. The only memorable passage was a section on Hemingway's [book:The Killers|13239918] that talked about the vaudeville precedent for the banter between the hoodlums Max and Al as they hold customer Nick Adams (Hemingway's traditional proxy character), owner George and Sam the cook captive at the town diner.