A Substantial Book on the Travesty of Socialism
Before this book came out, the only other truly peerless study of Socialist literature was Shafaravich's "The Socialist Phenomenon" That book, while examining the idea/history of collectivizing property around the globe, ultimately came to no substantial conclusions about what Socialism is. Watson reverses that by honing in on Europe from the 1780's onward, when Socialism came into its own. By combing through the dusty tomes of Marx, Prudhonne, Mussolini, and others, he shows that Socialism was and is a reactionary movement based on smashing the freedom of Capitalism and the risks of the ballot box. Better yet, he points to the fact that most Socialists identified themselves as Tory/Conservative, and were opposed to government welfare on the grounds that it would actually help the poor. Watson also has a chapter on Socialist Eugenics and Genocide that proves Hitler was simply a greenhorn compared to the Communists.
He even reveals people like Gandhi, Ruskin, and Hitler(!) to be fanatical collectivists. The end result is a brisk (100 pages), well-written book that a person will come back to repeatedly.
