Origins of totalitarianism

The Origins off Totalitarianism , in French the Origins of totalitarianism , is a work of Hannah Arendt whose first edition was published in 1951.

It is composed of three volumes:

Antisemitism ( the Anti-semitism ), published in French in 1973 under the title On the anti-semitism ;
Imperialism ( Impérialisme ), published in French in 1982;
Totalitarianism ( Totalitarianism ), published in French in 1972 under the title the totalitarian System .

Summary

On the anti-semitism

Hannah Arendt analyzes in this book the emergence of the political Antisémitisme, at the end of the 19th century, new compared to the feelings antijuifs which preceded to him. It details the part played by the emergence of the modern State-nations and the emancipation of the Juif S. According to it, the assimilation of the Jews required them that they be “exceptional”: the end of century transformed the Judaïsme , Religion and nationality, in collective matters, in judeity , with character of birth, personnel. For the man of the the Middle Ages, the Judaism was a Crime - to punish - whereas for the man of the beginning of the 20th century, the judeity is a Vice - to exterminate. That precedes the racist Antisémitisme and the Shoah.

Arendt concludes its book by an analysis from the Affaire Dreyfus, which is according to it the starting point of the modern anti-semitism; she considers that the France had 30 years in advance on the Jewish question.

Impérialisme

Imperialism does not mean construction of an empire, and expansion does not mean conquest.

Hannah Arendt analyzes the Impérialisme, this movement of expansion of the European powers starting from 1884, which leads to the First World War.

The imperialism must be included/understood like the first phase of the political domination of the middle-class, much more than like the ultimate stage of capitalism : the author connects the beginning of the period imperialist in a state in which the State-nation was not adapted any more to the capitalist development of the economy. The Middle-class, conscious of this weakness, started to be interested in the political matters, to ensure the maintenance of the creation of richnesses. The imperialism was born when the leading class holder of the instruments of production rose against the national limits imposed on its economic expansion.

It makes the distinction with the conquests of last (“conquest” and “expansion” are two terms opposed in the work), the imperial with the direction first of the term: for the first time, powers made conquests without wanting to export their laws and their habits in the areas conquered - even by applying laws which would be considered to be unacceptable on their own land. It is the first blow carried to the State-nation and the Démocratie, the first seeds of the Totalitarisme.

Arendt also shows that the racial thought and the Bureaucratie, two pillars of totalitarianism, were built to serve the expansion imperialist.

In the penultimate part of the book, Arendt analyzes the during continental one imperialism: the movements annexationists, is the Pangermanisme and the Panslavisme, which will feed thereafter Stalinist totalitarianisms hitlériens and .

The book is concluded by a reflection on the human rights and the Apatridie, conceived like a means of contagion of totalitarianism: the stateless people, people out of the right, force the Rules of law to treat them as would do it the totalitarian States which have them deposed of their nationality, because the human rights were connected upon the departure with the national Souveraineté, therefore with the Nationalité.

The totalitarian System

Arendt establishes the particular characteristics of the Totalitarisme. For Arendt, totalitarianism is before a whole movement , a dynamics of destruction of reality and structures social, more than one fixed mode. A totalitarian movement is international in its organization, universal in its ideological, planetary aiming in its political aspirations . The totalitarian mode, according to Arendt, would find its end if it were limited to a precise territory, or adopted a hierarchy, as in a traditional authoritarian regime: he seeks the total domination , without limits.

Editions

Editions in English

The Origins off Totalitarianism , 3 volumes, Harcourt Brace & Co., New York, 1951
2nd increased edition, Meridian Books, New York, 1958
3rd edition, Harcourt Brace & World, New York, 1966
4th edition with new forewords, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York, 1973

the most recent Edition in French

On the anti-semitism , translation by Micheline Pouteau (1973) revised by Helene Frappat, the Threshold (collection Points/Tests , nº 360), 2005
Impérialisme , translation by Martine Leiris (1982) revised by Helene Frappat, the Threshold (collection Points/Tests , nº 356), 2006
the totalitarian System , translation by Jean-Louis Le Bourget, Robert Davreu and Patrick Levy (1972) revised by Helene Frappat, the Threshold (collection Points/Tests , nº 307), 2005

See too

External bond

Another summary of work

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