Political Philosophy

The Origins of Totalitarianism

♡+

Hannah Arendt

1951

A landmark analysis of the twin totalitarian movements of Nazism and Stalinism, tracing their roots in nineteenth-century antisemitism, imperialism, and the collapse of the nation-state. Arendt argues that totalitarianism is a genuinely novel form of government, distinct from tyranny or despotism, whose essence is the total domination of human beings through ideology and terror.