Books/films that led you to study about Communist history ??

[Manulearning]

Hello,

For me the first small book i read was Mario Sousa's "Lies about Soviet Union" that got me interested.
Before that i had read Hitchens "God is not Great" which really filled me with 'youthful aggression'.

What be your source ?

[Geiseric]

I read 1984 and Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. I actually understood the whole theme of "Degeneration" though at first. However I could tell it wasn't about "Communism will always fail" as a lot of people even here try to make it seem.

[nihilust]

picked up the communist manifesto, sparked an interest in the idea, began to apply the science to society, fell in love with the "revolution"

[Brutus]

Some book about world war two that led to Stalin, then communism, then Marx!

[Manulearning]

I think all the sources were from outside school books. I remember we had a chapter on Vietnam War in our history book in 9th standard( how correct it was, cant say). They had mention of the long road they made through mountains. It surprised us all but still we never searched about it. Though i don't remember reading anything about USSR in them.
It puts me to guilt to see how our books are so so below par when compared to what kids studied in USSR - classics, history, marxist tools to apply. They sure had better upraising when it comes to education.

There is a good story about that - Conversations at tea by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, available at sovlit.

[The Idler]

Demanding the Impossible by Peter Marshall

[Red Commissar]

I don't really know if it was a particular work. By the time I read the manifesto and other marxists texts I was already considering myself a Marxist.

I think the turning point was reading Les Miserables. Pretty innocuous but for some reason that really got me thinking out of my old way of thinking and got me more interested in the struggle between downtrodden and those in power- though this is more a setting upon which the main plot takes place against. After that was Germinal, The Iron Heel, and The Jungle which were pretty eye opening.

[slum]

edward said's orientalism led me to frantz fanon's wretched of the earth, then i ran to the nearest socialists i could find, salivating for anti-capitalist literature and they gave me lenin

[Starship Stormtrooper]

Enemy at the Gates and Land and Freedom were some of the films influential on my becoming a leftist (or at least investigating it) while books with the greatest initial impact would have to be The Grapes of Wrath and some of Michael Moorcock's works (which were influential on my anarchist bent).

[Emmeka]

Actually, what initially got me involved with socialism was a series of old books from my mothers travels. She toured all of eastern Europe as a young adult (in Gorbachev's time) and had a crapload of this series of books called Yearbook USSR. They're pretty neat, if you ever see one be sure to scoop it up. They're pretty much just statistic books that talk about the annual accomplishments of the Soviet Union - you'd think it would be chalk full of propaganda but they tend to stick to just the numbers pretty well.

[Internal_Strife]

I would have to say that "The Take" by Naomi Klein convinced me that social ownership of the means of production was the way to go. I then discovered from there what socialism was about after being intrigued from that documentary which has led to my interest in communist history.

[Manulearning]

Actually, what initially got me involved with socialism was a series of old books from my mothers travels. She toured all of eastern Europe as a young adult (in Gorbachev's time) and had a crapload of this series of books called Yearbook USSR. They're pretty neat, if you ever see one be sure to scoop it up. They're pretty much just statistic books that talk about the annual accomplishments of the Soviet Union - you'd think it would be chalk full of propaganda but they tend to stick to just the numbers pretty well.
Yes, one old party( long time revisionist) bookstore still has stock of books from there accumulated and with a very very neat paper. I know i would sound very crappy to some here so please forgive - but i have heard that 'About USSR Series' paper was used by some people here(probably in villages) to rub off there underneath after daily course!!
How cruel :/