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The Origins of TotalitarianismBook

by Hannah Arendt

Who uses, recommends or left The Origins of Totalitarianism, in their own words: each a verbatim quote with a link to where it was said.

3 people

Carissa Véliz
Philosopher at the University of Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI; author of Privacy Is Power (2020), an Economist book of the year, and Prophecy.
recommended

Though published in 1951 and focused on the rise of Nazism and Stalinism, The Origins of Totalitarianism is extremely relevant today and to some degree prophetic.

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Lyndsey Stonebridge
British literary historian and critic; professor of humanities and human rights at the University of Birmingham; author of We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt's Lessons in Love and Disobedience (2024).
recommended

The Origins of Totalitarianism is the first great book to try and understand totalitarianism.

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat
American historian of fascism and authoritarian leaders; professor of history and Italian studies at New York University; author of Strongmen (2020); publishes the newsletter Lucid.
recommended

Your readers may be familiar with The Origins of Totalitarianism and her historical genealogies of the main components of Nazism, which begin with the imperial mindset and imperial methods of repression during the colonial period.

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