Title Modernism and totalitarianism : rethinking the intellectual sources of Nazism and Stalinism, 1945 to the present / Richard Shorten

Published Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Copies

Location	Call no.	Vol.	Availability
W'PONDS	320.5322 Sho/Mat		AVAILABLE
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Description xvii, 321 pages ; 22 cm Series Modernism and-- Modernism and-- Contents Part One. Totalitarianism : What, When, How? -- 1. The Problem of the Modern -- Unpacking totalitarian modernism -- Two models of totalitarianism : structural and genocidal -- The conceptual limits of political religion theory -- 2. The Problem of Intellectual Antecedents -- Antecedents as affinities -- Antecedents as influences -- Part Two. Three Totalitarian Currents -- 3. Utopianism -- The view from Cold War liberalism -- Communist utopianism -- Nazism and utopianism -- 4. Scientism -- Critical theory and the pathologies of reason -- Nazi science? -- Marxism, Stalinism and scientism -- 5. Revolutionary Violence -- The revolutionary passion in French anti-totalitarian thought -- The leftist orientation -- The rightist orientation Summary "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."--Publisher's website Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-311) and index Subject Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945 -- Political and social views Stalin, Joseph, 1878-1953 -- Political and social views National socialism -- Philosophy Communism -- Soviet Union -- Philosophy Totalitarianism -- Philosophy Civilization, Modern -- 20th century Politics and culture -- Germany -- History -- 20th century Politics and culture -- Soviet Union -- History SUBJECT Germany -- Intellectual life -- 20th century Soviet Union -- Intellectual life Genre/Form History. LC no. 2012034978 ISBN 9780230252066 (hardback) 0230252060 (hardback) 9780230252073 (paperback) 0230252079 (paperback)

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