The Origins of Totalitarianism
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 Book cover, 1951 ed. |
|
| Author | Hannah Arendt |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Nazism, Totalitarianism, Stalinism |
| Genre(s) | non-fiction |
| Publisher | Schocken |
| Released | |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 704 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0805242252 , ISBN 978-0805242256 |
The Origins of Totalitarianism is a book by Hannah Arendt which classed Nazism and Stalinism as totalitarian movements. It was recognized upon its 1951 publication as the comprehensive account of its subject, and was later hailed as a classic by the Times Literary Supplement.
This book continues to be one of the definitive philosophical analyses of totalitarianism, at least in its 20th century guise. Arendt dedicated the book to her husband Heinrich Blücher.
The book begins with the rise of Anti-Semitism in Central and Western Europe in the early and mid 19th century and continues with an examination of the New Imperialism period from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. Although Arthur de Gobineau's An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853-55) constitutes the first elaboration of "biological racism", as opposed to Boulainvilliers' anti-patriotic and anti-nationalist racism, Hannah Arendt traces the emergence of modern racism as an ideology in the Boers' population, starting in particular during the Great Trek in the first half of the 19th century, and qualifies it as an "ideological weapon for imperialism". Along with bureaucracy, which was experimented according to her in Egypt by Lord Cromer, racism was the main trait of colonialist imperialism, itself characterized by its unlimited expansion (as illustrated by Cecil Rhodes). This unlimited expansion necessarily opposed itself to the nation-state, which by definition was territorially limited. In the last part of the section on imperialism, Arendt then examines "continental imperialism" (pangermanism and panslavism) and the emergence of "movements" substituting themselves to the political parties. These movements were all antiparliamentarist and began to instrumentalize antisemitism. Beside, they all tended to be against the state, submitting the state to the mythified nation (see Benedict Anderson's imagined communities). Thus, Hannah Arendt reached the unexpected conclusion that Italian fascism remained a "traditional" authoritarian movement, which glorified the state, while she considered nazism to be closer to stalinism as both were totalitarian movements which aimed at destroying the state. Finally, she pointed to the explosion of the problem of ethnic minorities and of refugees following the first war. As stateless persons, refugees were deprived of civil rights and, by consequence, of human rights, since the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen had linked together national sovereignty and human rights.
The final section discusses the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on what Arendt argues were the two genuine forms of totalitarian government in the first half of the twentieth century — Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. Here, Arendt discusses the transformation of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the non-totalitarian world, and the use of terror, essential to this form of government. In the concluding chapter, Arendt analyzes the nature of individual isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination.
National Review ranked the book #15 in its 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the 20th Century list [1]. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute also listed it among the 50 best non-fiction books of the 20th century [2].
Publisher: Harcourt; New edition (March 1, 1973) (ISBN 0-15-670153-7)
[edit] See also
- John A. Hobson's Imperialism (1902)
