The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)

This inspirational and well-crafted informational text takes the reader through Temple Grandin’s diagnosis of autism to her becoming a scientist and professor of animal science. Appendix, Selected Bibliography and Resources, Photo Credits, Index.

Hannah Arendt's book "The Origins of Totalitarianism" is rightly regarded as a classic. But it is not a book for the general reader. The writing, without cant or sophistry, wastes not a word and shows clear, concise and often original thinking in nearly every sentence. Thus it must be approached by a thoughtful reader with mental energy to burn and perhaps be read just several pages at a time.

The book, written in 1951 and updated, focuses on Stalin and Hitler. Totalitarian systems differ in a number of ways from mere dictatorships, such as that of Mussolini and hundreds of others since the dawn of history, and they are new in recent history. A central element is contempt for facts; another, mass terror.

Arendt shows how the regimes of Stalin and Hitler evolved as movements and gained, consolidated, and maintained power. There is a sense of the surreal in the incomprehensible cruelty of those two leaders who caused the deaths of tens of millions of innocent people, the prolonged torture likely of yet more, the terrorization of still more, and encouraged millions of good people to do horrible things.

And they fooled an even greater number of people, east and west, and have always had admirers, high and low, down to this day. Thus the enduring importance of this book.

The book is thoroughly researched and footnoted. I did not note a false step anywhere in fact or emphasis.

The history of Jewry as it relates to Nazism was interesting to this blue-eyed reader. Arendt (a secular Jew) concluded that, to the Nazi elite, antisemitic policy was chiefly a political tool. Arendt is concerned with the subjective experiences of victims and villains only to the extent that they influenced power and process in Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's Germany.

Can a totalitarian system arise again? Be wary of every -ism. The world always has totalitarians-in-training, and surely others of us with imperial minds can imagine having a go at enjoying maximum power. ( )

The first thing that I will say is this: This is a difficult book to read.

Hannah Arendt uses exceptionally long and convoluted sentences, which you must unravel slowly. It is only when you do this that you can make sense of what she writes.
She divided the book into three sections:
- The Jewish Question. Since I am not familiar with their history, this entire section made little
sense to me. Having said that, I was extremely surprised to note that
anti-Semitism does not have deep historical roots! There is some very good
material on the changes that took place in Europe towards the end of the
19th century, possibly causing some of the disasters of the 20th century.
- Imperialism. There was some good material here, but she kept dancing between England and
Hitler. Because of this her narrative was not clear.
- Totalitarianism. This is when the book began to shine. There is so much material in this section
that this alone makes the book worthwhile. However, she obsessed about Stalin
and Hitler. I don't know why she did not compare these two men with other
totalitarian leaders. Nor did she explore the fine lines between totalitarianism,
tyranny and dictatorship. ( )

By the title, I might have gotten the impression that this might have been a full history and treatise on all Totalitarian regimes, but I'm not at all unhappy to see how the author narrowed it down to the full wealth of circumstances that gave rise to Nazi Germany and, to a lesser degree, Stalin's Russia.

More than that, Hannah Arendt proves to be an erudite master at breaking down huge subjects and many causes into easily digestible chunks.

The focus begins on the actual origins of racial targeting and the somewhat interesting disconnect between real grievances and a targeted terror movement starting early with the Rothschild banking, 19th century propaganda, and political climates including the Dreyfus account. (Very interesting stuff here.)

It leads, naturally enough, into MORE of the same charges and racially-charged Us/Them mentalities and exactly how the machinations of a few could inculcate a whole nation. The trick is to slowly, surely, make everyone guilty of the same kind of injustice, formalize it and redirect all culpability toward the Leader and wash your hands of the reality, and then hold on for dear life as everyone else you know is forced into looking over their shoulders to see if they might be next on the chopping block.

It's perfectly understandable. Totalitarianism is the utter eradication of self and self-destiny under the auspices of a single, irrepressible force. It runs on fear and distrust. Everyone under Hitler was in an untenable position and knew they could lose favor at any time.

Stalin worked the same way. The results were almost always similar as a whole. Many people died, and no one knew how to go on except by hanging on to the system that brought them there.

Ideology didn't really matter. Terror was the driving force, carried along by a fierce logical insistence that they were always right. Not even dissent mattered. The logical progression, taken to its extremes, was always used as the ultimate rationality.

This book showed us a wealth of information in every step. Starting out with imperialism and ending with totalitarianism, this book also gives us some other very important insights.

Believe it or not, they're insights that apply as equal now as they did then, and not as a pithy or ironic commentary on this or that politician we hate.

Mostly, it starts out as finding an Other to hate. It could just be any Us versus Them. Dehumanize them. Blame all your problems on them. And then make your supporters do something horrible. Turn your whole nation into people who are already guilty. Make sure they remain confused and uncertain. And then turn up the heat, making them all do worse things, progressively, until they see no way out but forward. Give them no other choice.

Easy blueprint.

Who is next? Women versus men? Another Race s**tstorm? Blue Vs Red? Rich versus the poor?

Quite sobering to see how we're pushing ourselves closer and closer to Totalitarianism all the time. All we need is one single Leader who can blackmail us all into doing his bidding, and here we go! ( )

Masterful. Read the third book, Totalitarianism. ( )