num_pages: 527
description: Hannah Arendt's definitive work on totalitarianism and an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political historyThe Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. Arendt explores the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarian government in our time—Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia—which she adroitly recognizes were two sides of the same coin, rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. From this vantage point, she discusses the evolution of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the nontotalitarian world, the use of terror, and the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination.
language: English
title: The Origins of Totalitarianism
titlecomplete: The Origins of Totalitarianism
genres: Sociology, History, Classics, Psychology, Theory, Philosophy, Germany, Politics, Political Science, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 11603
awards: awardedAt: -568051200000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Nonfiction
publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich