The Origins of Totalitarianism
Encyclopedia
The Origins of Totalitarianism (German
Elemente und Ursprünge totaler Herrschaft, i.e. Elements and origins of totalitarian rule) is a book by Hannah Arendt
which describes and analyzes the two major totalitarian movements of the twentieth century, Nazism
and Stalinism
. Its original title was to be 'The Burden of Our Times', and the move away from this may have helped to obscure the main thrust of the book, which is far from being a straightforward study of the Nazi and Stalinist totalitarianism it might appear.
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 form.
Arendt dedicated the book to her husband Heinrich Blücher
.
in central
and western Europe
in the early and middle 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 Henri de Boulainvilliers
' anti-patriotic
and anti-nationalist
racism, Hannah Arendt traces the emergence of modern racism
as an ideology
to the Boers', 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 with in Egypt
by Lord Cromer
, Arendt says that 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 and was hostile to the territorially delimited nation-state
. Arendt traces the roots of modern imperialism to the accumulation of excess capital in European nation-states during the 19th century. This capital required overseas investments outside of Europe to be productive and political control had to be expanded overseas to protect the investments. She then examines "continental imperialism" (pan-Germanism
and pan-Slavism
) and the emergence of "movements" substituting themselves to the political parties
. These movements are hostile to the state and antiparliamentarist and gradually institutionalize anti-Semitism and other kinds of racism. Arendt concludes that while Italian fascism
was a nationalist
authoritarian movement, Nazism
and Stalinism
were totalitarian movements that sought to eliminate all restraints upon the power of the State.
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
. Totalitarian movements are fundamentally different from autocratic regimes, says Arendt, insofar as autocratic regimes seek only to gain absolute political power and to outlaw opposition, while totalitarian regimes seek to dominate every aspect of everyone's life as a prelude to world domination. Arendt discusses the use of front organizations, fake governmental agencies, and esoteric doctrines as a means of concealing the radical nature of totalitarian aims from the non-totalitarian world. A final section added to the second edition of the book 1958 suggests that individual isolation
and loneliness are preconditions for totalitarian domination
.
placed the book among the 100 best books of any kind of the 20th century, while the National Review
ranked it #15 on its list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the century. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute
listed it among the 50 best non-fiction books of the century.
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
Elemente und Ursprünge totaler Herrschaft, i.e. Elements and origins of totalitarian rule) is a book by Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
which describes and analyzes the two major totalitarian movements of the twentieth century, Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
. Its original title was to be 'The Burden of Our Times', and the move away from this may have helped to obscure the main thrust of the book, which is far from being a straightforward study of the Nazi and Stalinist totalitarianism it might appear.
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
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
, at least in its 20th century form.
Arendt dedicated the book to her husband Heinrich Blücher
Heinrich Blücher
Heinrich Blücher was a German poet and philosopher. He was the second husband of Hannah Arendt.Blücher was born in Berlin. He was a member of the Communist Party of Germany until 1928, but soon rejected Stalinism and left the party in protest of its Stalinist policies...
.
History
The book describes the rise of anti-SemitismAnti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
in central
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
and western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
in the early and middle 19th century and continues with an examination of the New Imperialism
New Imperialism
New Imperialism refers to the colonial expansion adopted by Europe's powers and, later, Japan and the United States, during the 19th and early 20th centuries; expansion took place from the French conquest of Algeria until World War I: approximately 1830 to 1914...
period from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Although Arthur de Gobineau
Arthur de Gobineau
Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau was a French aristocrat, novelist and man of letters who became famous for developing the theory of the Aryan master race in his book An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races...
's An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races
An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races
Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines by Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau was intended as a work of philosophical enquiry into decline and degeneration...
(1853-55) constitutes the first elaboration of "biological racism
Scientific racism
Scientific racism is the use of scientific techniques and hypotheses to sanction the belief in racial superiority or racism.This is not the same as using scientific findings and the scientific method to investigate differences among the humans and argue that there are races...
", as opposed to Henri de Boulainvilliers
Henri de Boulainvilliers
Henri de Boulainvilliers was a French writer and historian. Educated at the college of Juilly, he served in the army until 1697...
' anti-patriotic
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
and anti-nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
racism, Hannah Arendt traces the emergence of modern racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
as an ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
to the Boers', starting in particular during the Great Trek
Great Trek
The Great Trek was an eastward and north-eastward migration away from British control in the Cape Colony during the 1830s and 1840s by Boers . The migrants were descended from settlers from western mainland Europe, most notably from the Netherlands, northwest Germany and French Huguenots...
in the first half of the 19th century, and qualifies it as an "ideological weapon for imperialism".
Along with bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
, which was experimented with in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
by Lord Cromer
Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer
Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer, GCB, OM, GCMG, KCSI, CIE, PC, FRS , was a British statesman, diplomat and colonial administrator....
, Arendt says that racism was the main trait of colonialist
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
, itself characterized by its unlimited expansion (as illustrated by Cecil Rhodes). This unlimited expansion necessarily opposed itself and was hostile to the territorially delimited nation-state
Nation-state
The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...
. Arendt traces the roots of modern imperialism to the accumulation of excess capital in European nation-states during the 19th century. This capital required overseas investments outside of Europe to be productive and political control had to be expanded overseas to protect the investments. She then examines "continental imperialism" (pan-Germanism
Pan-Germanism
Pan-Germanism is a pan-nationalist political idea. Pan-Germanists originally sought to unify the German-speaking populations of Europe in a single nation-state known as Großdeutschland , where "German-speaking" was taken to include the Low German, Frisian and Dutch-speaking populations of the Low...
and pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice...
) and the emergence of "movements" substituting themselves to the political parties
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
. These movements are hostile to the state and antiparliamentarist and gradually institutionalize anti-Semitism and other kinds of racism. Arendt concludes that while Italian fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
was a nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
authoritarian movement, Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
were totalitarian movements that sought to eliminate all restraints upon the power of the State.
Final section
The book's final section is devoted to describing the mechanics of totalitarian movements, focusing on Nazi GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and Stalinist Russia
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
. Here, Arendt discusses the transformation of classes
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
into masses, the role of propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
in dealing with the non-totalitarian world, and the use of terror, essential to this form of government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
. Totalitarian movements are fundamentally different from autocratic regimes, says Arendt, insofar as autocratic regimes seek only to gain absolute political power and to outlaw opposition, while totalitarian regimes seek to dominate every aspect of everyone's life as a prelude to world domination. Arendt discusses the use of front organizations, fake governmental agencies, and esoteric doctrines as a means of concealing the radical nature of totalitarian aims from the non-totalitarian world. A final section added to the second edition of the book 1958 suggests that individual isolation
Solitude
Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation, i.e., lack of contact with people. It may stem from bad relationships, deliberate choice, infectious disease, mental disorders, neurological disorders or circumstances of employment or situation .Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one...
and loneliness are preconditions for totalitarian domination
Domination
-Books:* The Domination, an alternate history / science-fiction / alternate reality fictional, by S. M. Stirling.-Music:* Dominant , a diatonic scale step and diatonic function in tonal music theory...
.
Reception
Le MondeLe Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
placed the book among the 100 best books of any kind of the 20th century, while the National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
ranked it #15 on its list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the century. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc., or ', is a non-profit educational organization founded in 1953 as the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists...
listed it among the 50 best non-fiction books of the century.
See also
- John A. HobsonJohn A. HobsonJohn Atkinson Hobson , commonly known as John A. Hobson or J. A. Hobson, was an English economist and critic of imperialism, widely popular as a lecturer and writer.-Life:...
's ImperialismImperialism (Hobson)Imperialism: A Study was a political-economic discourse written by John A. Hobson in 1902.The "taproot of imperialism" is not found in nationalistic pride, but capitalist oligarchy...
(1902) - Le Mondes 100 Books of the CenturyLe Monde's 100 Books of the CenturyThe 100 Books of the Century is a grading of the books considered as the hundred best of the 20th century, drawn up in the spring of 1999 through a poll conducted by the French retailer Fnac and the Paris newspaper Le Monde....