Suchergebnisse

A review essay on a book by Claude Lefort, La Complication: retour sur le communisme ([The Complication: Return to Communism] Paris: Fayard, 1999). The particular focus of this book is the matter of totalitarianism in the postcommunist era. Lefort's readings of Martin Malia, Francois Furet, & Hannah Arendt are examined, along with the earlier equation of totalitarianism with ideology. Lefort adopts the more compelling position that totalitarianism is primarily a political, not ideological, phenomenon, a claim that resonates for the post-Cold War "globalism" that may well be a new totalitarian manifestation rather than a response to the demise of communism. K. Coddon

This book examines the historical trajectory of dictatorship, fascism, and totalitarianism; their characteristics; where they intersected and how they differed; and some of the individuals--including Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, among many others--infamous for violently imposing their often extreme agendas.

The destruction of the story means the destruction of a basic instrument of human knowledge and self-knowledge

RECENT WESTERN WORKS ON THE SOVIET UNION AND EASTERN EUROPE LEAVE NO DOUBT OF THE CONTINUING RELEVANCE OF TOTALITARIANISM. WORKS ON CHINA, IN CONTRAST, HAVE TENDED TO IGNORE THE METHODOLOGICAL PRECEPTS DEVELOPED IN THE STUDY OF TOTALITARIANISM. AS A RESULT, MUCH OF WESTERN SINOLOGY GIVES AN IMPLICITLY FAVORABLE BUT NOT FULLY RELIABLE PICTURE OF CHINA.