Generally regarded as the definitive work on totalitarianism, this book is an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political movements. Arendt was one of the first to recognize that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were two sides of the same coin rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. "With the Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt emerges as the most original and profound-therefore the most valuable-political theoretician of our times" (New Leader). Index.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
good:
this book is something all students of power and social control should read. not just jews. arendt is no ellie wiesel, thankfully.
Totalitarianism, Loneliness and Modernity:
Today in the United States, the political ideologies of Fascism and communism are conceptualized as antipodal extremes on the classic American right to left political continuum. Stemming from Cold War understandings of the primacy of economic modes of production in defining the political character of a nation-state, Fascist Nazi Germany is deemed a part of the far right from its reliance on the private sector for economic production, while the Soviet Union bookends the far left because of their... more info
About the masses but not for the masses.:
Other reviews use appropriate words such as dense and weighty. Arendt writes historical analysis, not history, describing the roots or outcomes of events from the standpoint of competing classes, competing ideas, competing national identities, and broad historical trends. However, she does not always describe the history that she is interpreting, instead assuming the reader is already familiar with it. (I wonder how long the book would be if she had done so.) For example, she devotes an entire chapter to... more info
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS I HAVE READ.:
MY EDUCATION WOULD BE INCOMPLETE HAD I NOT READ THIS BOOK. EASILY 5 STARS.
