Modernism and Totalitarianism—Rethinking the Intellectual Sources of Nazism and Stalinism, 1945 to the Present

What is totalitarianism? In what ways was it modern? Modernism and Totalitarianism argues that conventional theories of totalitarianism are too focused on the state and fail to take note of its ideological trajectory. The book analyses this trajectory, shared by Nazism and Stalinism, the two instances of totalitarianism in its "classical" form. The ideological trajectory was formed in the interaction of three currents of modernist thought: utopianism, scientism, and revolutionary violence. Developing first of all in the nineteenth century, and in reaction to the Enlightenment mainstream, each of these three currents contributed to the idea of the totalitarian New Man. The book considers a broad range of theoretical positions, including those associated with Cold War liberalism, critical theory, and recent anti-totalitarian thought in France, in order to develop these arguments.

RICHARD SHORTEN teaches political theory at the University of Birmingham, UK. His work focuses on the history of political ideas, with particular reference to twentieth-century Europe. He has published widely on the subject of totalitarianism.