READING GUIDE
Political History
Hannah Arendt: The Origins of Totalitarianism
Originally written in 1951, Arendt’s first book takes on the nation-state and its inability to confront or resist the irrational, the control of masses through fostering fear, the ideological policy-making of global power seekers.
Mostly, though, we read Arendt now to better understand how fragile our democracies are, what restraints are placed upon future oppression, and the nature and motives of totalitarianism: how evil works.
This guide is a section-by-section summary and observations/reflections of the reading. For those without academic background in political history, a resource for taking on Arendt’s vast work.
In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true.
Totalitarian propaganda thrives on the manipulation of memory; its task is to deface the past at any cost.
How should we think about the volatile politics around us and not fall into despair and paralysis? What sort of understanding and defense is possible against fear?
“Totalitarian propaganda thrives on the manipulation of memory; its task is to deface the past at any cost.“
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.Cite this podcast with MLA format:
Chisnell, Steve. “Reading Guide: Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism.” Waywords Studio, 2025, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/arendts-the-origins-of-totalitarianism/.
