The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism’s Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration, by Paul Kengor. TAN Books, 2020. 552 pages. Hardcover, $29.95.
Victor Hugo once declared that “A stand can be made against invasion by an army; no stand can be made against invasion by an idea.” It’s a pithy insight with a fair amount of truth to it, but what happens when battalions use ideology as their primary weapons? Paul Kengor’s The Devil and Karl Marx is a history of communism’s war on religion, starting with the life of Marx and moving through the decades to elaborate on how organized communist planned to co-opt and eventually eradicate religion through various means of activism.
Kengor makes no attempt to present his narrative impartially. His disgust and anger towards Marx, communism in general, and its adherents is apparent on every page. This might hurt him with some readers, who could dismiss the book as a biased diatribe. To do so would be to ignore the often-overlooked historical record. Even readers with an extensive background knowledge of the last century and a half of political and intellectual history will almost certainly find a great deal of new information.
The early portions of the book focus on Marx’s personal and public lives, with Kengor taking frequent swipes at Marx’s work ethic, his lack of contact with actual members of the proletariat, his failings as a husband and father, and his shortcomings as a poet. A little-known aspect of Marx’s life is his relationship with the family servant, Helene “Lenchen” Demuth. Some sources, like Wikipedia, describe the details of Lenchen’s life very simply, stating that she worked for the Marx family and almost certainly bore a son by him. Kengor goes further, pointing out that while we may never know the precise nature of Lenchen’s relationship with Marx, she may have been a sex slave rather than a consenting lover to her employer. Furthermore, the lives of Marx’s children is presented in tragic detail, as Marx’s daughters died by suicide, one of whom seems to have been duped by a cruel husband who proposed that they take their lives together, only for him to fail to go through with it, essentially committing the perfect murder.
After presenting the Marx family as horrifically dark and dysfunctional, and addressing his embrace of atheism and the infatuation with diabolism reflected in his poetry, Kengor moves on to explaining how adherents of Marx attempted to propagate their cause by destroying religion. Some of the portions of the early chapters are stomach-turning in their frank descriptions of the brutality and twisted cruelty that were used to crush and humiliate believers. Gut-wrenching torture methods are described in detail. Later chapters focus on how communist-backed organizations actively recruited people of faith and clergy in the hopes of adding credence to their activism, and to try to convert those individuals to atheism.
Figures such as Earl Browder, William Z. Foster, Manning Johnson, Bella Dodd, and many others are profiled. Some of them were active communists for most of their adult lives, and others rejected their secular faith later in life and recanted their previous affiliations. Communist attempts to bend universities and seminaries to their mindsets are explored, as are the careers of many activists and the devastating effects their actions had on innocent people and society in general.
Ultimately, this book covers so much ground that it seems to be more of an introduction to the subject than a definitive history. It could very well have been turned into three separate books, each one going into much more detail in expanded format. The first volume of the trilogy could have focused on Marx’s personal life and family, the second could have looked at communist activists attacking religion in Europe, and the third could have focused on communist attempts to infiltrate religious institutions in America.
Kengor’s argument that much of today’s intellectual and social structure has been heavily influenced or deliberately warped by communism is convincing, but more is needed to explain how anti-communists can work to uproot such influence. Describing some of the horrors recounted in this book could help, but a counter-ideology is needed. Chestertonians, for example, need to provide a coherent and thorough vision of their man’s philosophy and worldview in order to oppose Marxism effectively. Stressing the atrocities of communism and the vileness of Karl Marx’s person behavior will also help.
Returning to the Hugo quote that introduced this review, Kengor indirectly makes the point that the only stand to make against invasion by an idea is a counter-attack with an alternative idea, strengthened by facts. Kengor’s book makes an excellent case that the best way to counteract communism, the best way to attack communism is to publicize the history of communism, the devastation it has caused, and the tactics used to propagate it.
–Chris Chan
This review first appeared in Gilbert!
