Originally published: 1st ed. New York : Harcourt, Brace, [1951]; on t.p.v. Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 1951.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 633-656) and index.

I: Antisemitism. Antisemitism as an outrage to common sense ; The Jews, the nation-state, and the birth of antisemitism ; The Jews and society ; The Dreyfus Affair -- II: Imperialism. The political emancipation of the bourgeoisie ; Race-thinking before racism ; Race and bureaucracy ; Continental imperialism : the pan-movements ; The decline of the nation-state and the end of the rights of man -- III: Totalitarianism. A classless society ; The totalitarian movement ; Totalitarianism in power ; Ideology and terror : a novel form of government.

In this book, the author provides a historical account of the forces that crystallized into totalitarianism: The ebb and flow of nineteenth-century anti-Semitism (she deemed the Dreyfus Affair a dress rehearsal for the Final Solution) and the rise of European imperialism, accompanied by the invention of racism as the only possible rationalization for it. For [the author] totalitarianism was a form of governance that eliminated the very possibility of political action. Totalitarian leaders attract both mobs and elites, take advantage of the unthinkability of their atrocities, target "objective enemies" (classes of people who are liquidated simply because of their group membership), use terror to create total loyalty, rely on concentration camps, and are obsessive in their pursuit of global primacy. But even more presciently, [she] understood that totalitarian solutions could well survive the demise of totalitarian regimes.--Dust jacket.