ABSTRACT
The main weakness of Norman Bimbaum’s otherwise valuable book on the fate of the left in the major Western nations is his attribution to the United States of “proprietorship” of the Cold War and “liberal imperialism” in a quest for “global hegemony.” Deborah Furet writes that in 1945 Even in Europe, Stalin encountered only American power. Bolstered by universal anti-Fascism, he had made a political investment, via ‘National Fronts’ and local Communist parties, in every country in which his army had the last word. Birnbaum draws amply on his informal conversations with leading politicians of the European and British Left, even dedicating his book to the memory of his “departed friends” Enrico Berlinguer and Willy Brandt. Birnbaum may be reflecting his youthful experience in New York City and Cambridge, where there was, atypically, a visible anti-Stalinist left presence.
