What a depressing book. The chapters about life in Eastern Europe after the fall of the USSR were utterly heartbreaking. Even the little things like how free Summer camp for kids was abolished was just ... fuck dude. I don't even know what to say
This book actually made me weep. I honestly don't know why it took me so long to read Parenti. 
B&R made a good baseline for my studies going forward. Since he largely used Western corp media sources to make his points some of the further stuff I've learned has been worse, some has been slightly better. But it definitely helped clear out 'the not a lib, but still anti-communist'
out of my skull.