#14 in Politics & society
The Origins of Totalitarianism
- 527
- Pages
- about 10 h
- Reading time
- Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century
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Our view
“The Origins of Totalitarianism”, Hannah Arendt’s first major work, is a searching analysis of Nazism and Stalinism. Arendt treats them as the defining totalitarian movements of the twentieth century’s first half and digs into the ground they grew from. Some readers find the opening part heavy going, yet see the point of the long background once the argument comes together. At over five hundred pages, it rewards readers willing to follow a long argument.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951, was Hannah Arendt's first major work, where she describes and analyzes Nazism and Stalinism as the major totalitarian political movements of the first half of the 20th century.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 55 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 27% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Politics & society average of 8.0. That is how 8.0 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 9.1 | 7 | 13% |
| Hardcover | 7.8 | 48 | 87% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Origins of Totalitarianism?
It has 527 pages — longer than 88% of the ranked books in Politics & society.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Politics & society — with scores between 7.4 and 8.2, closest to this book.
