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Milosz's political masterpiece The Captive Mind, published in 1953 and originally banned in the author's native Poland... sets out to answer the question: How did the wisest of his postwar compatriots fall for Stalinism-that is, for a politics of lies and fear?...Trumpism is not Stalinism, but the relevance of Milosz's insights-that intellectuals yearn to 'belong to the masses'; that there is never a shortage of ways to justify cruelty in the name of the presumptively higher truth; that those who refuse to conform are caricatured as self-righteous purists-continues to haunt me...When Milosz won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980, the committee cited his 'uncompromising clear-sightedness.' Just so. -- New York Times A faultlessly perceptive analysis...As timely today as when it was first written. -- Jerzy Kosinski, award-winning Polish American novelist A central text in the modern effort to understand totalitarianism. -- New York Times Book Review

"A central text in the modern effort to understand totalitarianism. -- ""New York Times Book Review"" Milosz's political masterpiece The Captive Mind, published in 1953 and originally banned in the author's native Poland... sets out to answer the question: How did the wisest of his postwar compatriots fall for Stalinism-that is, for a politics of lies and fear?...Trumpism is not Stalinism, but the relevance of Milosz's insights-that intellectuals yearn to 'belong to the masses'; that there is never a shortage of ways to justify cruelty in the name of the presumptively higher truth; that those who refuse to conform are caricatured as self-righteous purists-continues to haunt me...When Milosz won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980, the committee cited his 'uncompromising clear-sightedness.' Just so. -- ""New York Times"" A faultlessly perceptive analysis...As timely today as when it was first written. -- ""Jerzy Kosinski, award-winning Polish American novelist"""

A central text in the modern effort to understand totalitarianism. -- New York Times Book Review Milosz's political masterpiece The Captive Mind, published in 1953 and originally banned in the author's native Poland... sets out to answer the question: How did the wisest of his postwar compatriots fall for Stalinism-that is, for a politics of lies and fear?...Trumpism is not Stalinism, but the relevance of Milosz's insights-that intellectuals yearn to 'belong to the masses'; that there is never a shortage of ways to justify cruelty in the name of the presumptively higher truth; that those who refuse to conform are caricatured as self-righteous purists-continues to haunt me...When Milosz won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980, the committee cited his 'uncompromising clear-sightedness.' Just so. -- New York Times A faultlessly perceptive analysis...As timely today as when it was first written. -- Jerzy Kosinski, award-winning Polish American novelist

A faultlessly perceptive analysis...As timely today as when it was first written. -- Jerzy Kosinski, award-winning Polish American novelist Milosz's political masterpiece The Captive Mind, published in 1953 and originally banned in the author's native Poland... sets out to answer the question: How did the wisest of his postwar compatriots fall for Stalinism-that is, for a politics of lies and fear?...Trumpism is not Stalinism, but the relevance of Milosz's insights-that intellectuals yearn to 'belong to the masses'; that there is never a shortage of ways to justify cruelty in the name of the presumptively higher truth; that those who refuse to conform are caricatured as self-righteous purists-continues to haunt me...When Milosz won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980, the committee cited his 'uncompromising clear-sightedness.' Just so. -- New York Times A central text in the modern effort to understand totalitarianism. -- New York Times Book Review

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Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) was born in Szetejnie, Lithuania. He worked with the Polish resistance movement in Warsaw during World War II and was later stationed in Paris and Washington, DC, as a cultural attache of the Polish People's Republic. Milosz defected to France in 1951, and in 1960 he accepted a position at the University of California, Berkeley. Among his many prizes and honors are the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the Berkeley Citation, the Nobel Prize in Literature, and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Claire Bloom, CBE, is an English film and stage actress, known for leading roles in plays such as Streetcar Named Desire, A Doll's House, and Long Day's Journey into Night, along with nearly sixty films and countless television roles, during a career spanning over six decades. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 Queen's birthday honors for services to drama. Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than three thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile's Golden Voices in 2012.

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