Recognized on publication as the definitive account of its subject, The Origins of Totalitarianism remains the foundation for continuing discussion.

In this final volume of her monumental study Dr. Arendt examines the institutions, organizations, and functioning of totalitarian movements and governments, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarian dominion in history—the dictatorships of National Socialism after 1938 and of Bolshevism after 19M). She discusses the transformation of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the nontotalitarian world, and the use of terror, the very essence Of this form Of government. And in a brilliant concluding chapter she analyzes the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination.