I generally like Barnes’ writing but I didn’t really enjoy this book. It felt dated (not the author’s fault, obviously) as we are now in our own “end of times” that has nothing to do with the fall of communism. I thought the arguments presented by the socialists and the anti-socialists were persuasive but also missed the point. Through it all, the common people continued to starve. Perhaps that was the point Barnes was trying to make. I feel like there are more ideas to be extracted from this book if I read it again at a different time.