Memorial Day Blowout! Entire Store On Sale! 10% Off Orders Up To $100 | 15% Off Orders Over $100
Good through 5/27/13, excludes Books, Wine, Nambe, Michael Aram, Sales Items, Sukkahs & Schach, Ketubot, Tefillin and Shipping Costs.

Need Help?

Paper Shoppe

Home > Jewish Books & Media > History

Books on Jewish History

What's New | Clearance

Introduction to Jewish History

Reference

Comprehensive Works

By Time Period

Biblical (Before 586 BCE)

Classical (586 BCE to 750 CE)

Jews In The Diaspora

Special Interest

Jewish History - Youth

Judaism.com has the largest selection of Jewish Books available for sale online. If you can't find the Jewish book you are looking for please contact us.

Jewish Holidays

Tisha B'Av Mon. Eve Jul 15

Rosh Hashanah Wed. Eve Sep 4

Yom Kippur Fri. Eve Sep 13

View Larger Image

The Origins of Totalitarianism

By Hannah Arendt
(674 Pages)Publisher: Schocken Books, 1948/2004

The Origins of Totalitarianism is an indispensable book for understanding the frightful barbarity of the 20th century. Suspicious of the inevitability so often imposed by hindsight, Hannah Arendt was not interested in detailing the causes that produced totalitarianism. Nothing in the 19th century -- indeed, nothing in human history -- could have prepared us for the idea of political domination achieved by organizing the infinite plurality and differentiation of human beings as if all humanity were just one individual. Arendt believed that such a development marked a grotesque departure from all that had come before.

In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt sought to provide a historical account of the forces that crystallized into totalitarianism: the ebb and flow of 19th century anti-Semitism (she deemed the Dreyfus Affair a dress rehearsal for the Final Solution) and the rise of European imperialism, accompanied by the invention of racism as the only possible rationalization for it. For Arendt, totalitarianism was a form of governance that eliminated the very possibility of political action. Even more presciently, Arendt understood that totalitarian solutions could well survive the demise of totalitarian regimes.

The Origins of Totalitarianism remains as essential a book for understanding our times as it was when it first appeared more than fifty years ago. New introduction by Samantha Power.

JDC #	49023
Format:	Hard
This item is currently unavailable.