The Socialist Temptation

Written by Iain Murray

Narrated by James Langton

IT'S BACK!

Just thirty years ago, socialism seemed utterly discredited.

An economic, moral, and political failure, socialism had rightly been thrown on the ash heap of history after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Unfortunately, bad ideas never truly go away—and socialism has come back with a vengeance.

A generation of young people who don’t remember the misery that socialism inflicted on Russia and Eastern Europe is embracing it all over again. Oblivious to the unexampled prosperity capitalism has showered upon them, they are demanding utopia.

In his provocative book, The Socialist Temptation, Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute explains:

• Why the socialist temptation is suddenly so powerful among young people
• That even when socialism doesn’t usher in a bloody tyranny (as, for example, in the Soviet Union, China, and Venezuela), it still makes everyone poor and miserable
• Why under the relatively benign democratic socialism of Murray's youth in pre-Thatcher Britain, he had to do his homework by candlelight
• That the Scandinavian economies are not really socialist at all
• The inconsistencies in socialist thought that prevent it from ever working in practice
• How we can show young people the sorry truth about socialism and turn the tide of history against this destructive pipe dream

Sprightly, convincing, and original, The Socialist Temptation is a powerful warning that the resurgence of socialism could rob us of our freedom and prosperity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Sep 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781713550716

Iain Murray

Iain Murray is Vice President for Strategy and senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank that works to promote free markets and limited government. Murray also directs the Center for Economic Freedom at CEI. For the past fifteen years at CEI, Iain has written and lectured extensively on free markets and the environment, labor policy, finance, the EU, and trade. He tweets at @ismurray and is a Contributing Editor at Instapundit.com. Before coming to CEI, Iain was Director of Research at the Statistical Assessment Service. A former civil servant in the United Kingdom, where he helped to privatize the railroad industry, Iain immigrated to the U.S. in 1997 and remains a British citizen. He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of London and a Master of Arts from the University of Oxford. He is married with two children and lives in Northern Virginia. Iain is a long-suffering fan of the Washington Redskins, Sunderland AFC, and the England cricket team. He likes to brew his own beer and play board and table-top games with friends.