The Passing of an Illusion: The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century

François Furet was acknowledged as the twentieth century's preeminent historian of the French Revolution. But years before his death, he turned his attention to the consequences and aftermath of another critical revolution-the Communist revolution. The result, *Le passé d'une illusion*, is a penetrating history of the ideological passions that have fueled and characterized the modern era.