The Origins of Totalitarianism is an indispensable book for understanding the frightful barbarity of the twentieth century. Suspicious of the inevitability so often imposed by hindsight, Hannah Arendt was not interested in detailing the causes that produced totalitarianism. Nothing in the nineteenth century—indeed, nothing in human history—could have prepared us for the idea of political domination achieved by organizing the infinite plurality and differentiation of human beings as if all humanity were just one individual. Arendt believed that such a development marked a grotesque departure from all that had come before.
In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt sought to provide an historical account of the forces that crystallized into totalitarianism: The ebb and flow of nineteenth-century anti-Semitism (she deemed the Dreyfus Affair a dress rehearsal for the Final Solution) and he rise of European imperialism, accompanied by the invention of racism as the only possible rationalization for it. For Arendt, totalitarianism was a form of governance that eliminated the very possibility of political action. Totalitarian leaders attract both mobs and elites, take advantage of the unthinkability of their atrocities, target “objective enemies” (classes of people who are liquidated simply because of their group membership), use terror to create loyalty, rely on concentration camps, and are obsessive in their pursuit of global primacy. But even more presciently, Arendt understood that totalitarian solutions could well survive the demise of totalitarian regimes.
The Origins of Totalitarianism remains as essential a book for understanding our times as it was when it first appeared more than fifty years ago.
The Origins of Totalitarianism is an indispensable book for understanding the frightful barbarity of the twentieth century. Suspicious of the inevitability so often imposed by hindsight, Hannah Arendt was not interested in detailing the causes that produced totalitarianism. Nothing in the nineteenth century—indeed, nothing in human history—could have prepared us for the idea of political domination achieved by organizing the infinite plurality and differentiation of human beings as if all humanity were just one individual. Arendt believed that such a development marked a grotesque departure from all that had come before.
In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt sought to provide an historical account of the forces that crystallized into totalitarianism: The ebb and flow of nineteenth-century anti-Semitism (she deemed the Dreyfus Affair a dress rehearsal for the Final Solution) and he rise of European imperialism, accompanied by the invention of racism as the only possible rationalization for it. For Arendt, totalitarianism was a form of governance that eliminated the very possibility of political action. Totalitarian leaders attract both mobs and elites, take advantage of the unthinkability of their atrocities, target “objective enemies” (classes of people who are liquidated simply because of their group membership), use terror to create loyalty, rely on concentration camps, and are obsessive in their pursuit of global primacy. But even more presciently, Arendt understood that totalitarian solutions could well survive the demise of totalitarian regimes.
The Origins of Totalitarianism remains as essential a book for understanding our times as it was when it first appeared more than fifty years ago.
The Origins of Totalitarianism: Introduction by Samantha Power
704The Origins of Totalitarianism: Introduction by Samantha Power
704Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780805242256 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |
Publication date: | 04/20/2004 |
Pages: | 704 |
Sales rank: | 260,680 |
Product dimensions: | 6.40(w) x 9.53(h) x 1.50(d) |
About the Author
Customer Reviews
Explore More Items
This beautiful edition of Margaret Atwood’s seminal work of speculative fiction features a leatherette cover, gilt edging, and ribbon marker—a perfect gift for book lovers
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale
In this extraordinary collection, Margaret Atwood gives us nine unforgettable tales that reveal the grotesque,
In Where the Past Begins,
Stephen King's second novel, the classic vampire bestseller 'SALEM'S LOT, tells the story of evil in small-town America.
'Salem's Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses,
Presents a collection of twenty stories of horror and nightmarish fantasy that transform everyday situations into experiences of compelling terror in the worlds of the living, the dying, and the
In the 1930's Old South, when a gentle giant of a man is sentenced to death for the murder of two girls, the fact that he is black and the girls are white is inflammatory enough, but the situation is