Michael Parenti

Dr. Michael Parenti (born 1933) is an Italian American political scientist, historian, and media critic. Parenti received his Ph.D in political science from Yale University and has taught at several universities, colleges, and other institutions. As of June 2004, he has had seventeen books and over 250 articles published. Parenti's articles have been published in scholarly publications, periodicals, and assorted news media. His works have been translated into over a dozen languages. Parenti also lectures frequently on college campuses across the nation; his talks and commentaries (e.g., Real History) are also broadcast to radio audiences across North America and worldwide.

Political views

Parenti is known for his steadfast leftist and radical political convictions, and has described himself as a Marxist--though he regularly alleges that U.S. mass media and mainstream political commentary distort and pervert the meaning of the term.

Related Topics:
Leftist - Radical - Marxist

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In Blackshirts and Reds, Parenti suggests that common estimates of the number of deaths under Joseph Stalin are gross exaggerations, and stresses that the overwhelming majority of inmates in Gulag labor camps and colonies were sent there based on convictions for nonpolitical offences--that is to say, only a small minority were political prisoners. He does not offer his own estimate of the overall number of deaths under the duration of Stalinism, except to claim that the number of actual executions between 1921 and 1953 was 799,455. He also duly notes that the Soviet Union "made dramatic gains in literacy, industrial wages, health care, and women's rights" under Stalin's leadership, and criticizes Leon Trotsky as "among the more authoritarian Bolshevik leaders".

Related Topics:
Joseph Stalin - Gulag - Political prisoners - 1921 - 1953 - Soviet Union - Literacy - Health care - Leon Trotsky - Authoritarian - Bolshevik

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His book, The Assassination of Julius Caesar, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

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