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Palgrave Macmillan

Pre-Modernity, Totalitarianism and the Non-Banality of Evil

A Comparison of Germany, Spain, Sweden and France

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Steven Saxonberg

    1. Department of European Studies and International Relations, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

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  • Argues against Arendt’s ‘banality of evil’ thesis from a theoretical perspective
  • Compares regimes to consider why they become totalitarian
  • Demonstrates that totalitarianism is not purely a modern phenomenon

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Steven Saxonberg
    Pages 1-33

  3. Cases of Totalitarianism

    • Steven Saxonberg
    Pages 35-50

  4. Explaining Evilness

    • Steven Saxonberg
    Pages 51-77

  5. France and the Non-Totalitarian Inquisition

    • Steven Saxonberg
    Pages 79-111

  6. Spain: Pre-Modern Totalitarianism

    • Steven Saxonberg
    Pages 113-152

  7. Sweden

    • Steven Saxonberg
    Pages 153-203

  8. Nazi Germany and Non-Banal Evilness

    • Steven Saxonberg
    Pages 205-285

  9. The End?

    • Steven Saxonberg
    Pages 287-295

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 297-303
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Keywords

About this book

This book provides a comparative and historical analysis of totalitarianism and considers why Spain became totalitarian during its inquisition but not France; and why Germany became totalitarian during the previous century, but not Sweden. The author pushes the concept of totalitarianism back into the pre-modern period and challenges Hannah Arendt’s notion of the banality of evil. Instead, he presents an alternative framework that can explain why some states become totalitarian and why they induce people to commit evil acts.

Reviews

“Today, when the role of fear in keeping the population in line has been again rediscovered by different political actors, there is nothing more timely than asking new and critical questions about the dark European history. The book, a comparative historical political-sociological analysis of the history of Spain, France, Germany and Sweden, argues against the widely held belief that totalitarianism is something modern. The challenging argument of the book that totalitarianism has come about as part of a state-building strategy will help us think about what one can or cannot learn from the past.” (Andrea Pető, Professor, Central European University, Hungary)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of European Studies and International Relations, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Steven Saxonberg

About the author

Steven Saxonberg is a professor in the Institute of European Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the Institute of Public Policy and Social Work, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He has done research at the Centre for Social and Economic Strategies, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.

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