Here’s Paul Hollander shortly after his book Political Pilgrims talking about the book’s argument.
What are some of the major reasons given by Aron, Hollander, and Judt why so many intellectuals aligned themselves with the Soviet Union, despite all the evidence that this was a totalitarian state that had made good on almost none of the promises made by the Bolshevik Revolution?
In what ways might we talk about Marxism as a quasi-religion? Why is this ironic?
How can we bring in some of the analysis from e.g., Voegelin on Gnostic thinking, and Molnar on secularized religion to help us understand the intellectual appeal of communism/Marxism?