Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism, and the Social Sciences

by Peter Baehr

This book examines the nature of totalitarianism as interpreted by some of the finest minds of the twentieth century. It focuses on Hannah Arendt's claim that totalitarianism was an entirely unprecedented regime and that the social sciences had integrally misconstrued it. A sociologist who is a critical admirer of Arendt, Baehr looks sympathetically at Arendt's objections to social science and shows that her complaints were in many respects justified. Avoiding broad disciplinary endorsements or dismissals, Baehr reconstructs the theoretical and political stakes of Arendt's encounters with prominent social scientists such as David Riesman, Raymond Aron, and Jules Monnerot. In presenting the first systematic appraisal of Arendt's critique of the social sciences, Baehr examines what it means to see an event as unprecedented. Furthermore, he adapts Arendt and Aron's philosophies to shed light on modern Islamist terrorism and to ask whether it should be categorized alongside Stalinism and National Socialism as totalitarian.

Genres: Philosophy, Sociology

244 pages, Hardcover

First published March 11, 2010

About the author

Peter Baehr is Chair Professor of Social Theory at Lingnan University. Before coming to Hong Kong in 2000, he worked at universities in Canada and Britain. He teaches and writes mainly in the areas of social/ political thought, political culture, and mass emergency. Peter Baehr’s work has been translated into Chinese, Danish, Farsi, French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese and Portuguese. Aside from his position at Lingnan University, Baehr is Raymond Aron Fellow at Boston University, and an Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh. He is President of the History of Sociology Research Committee of the International Sociological Association, and sits as an international editor on eight journals. Baehr’s books are published by Cambridge University Press, Cornell University Press, Transaction, Penguin and Stanford University Press.

Reviews

[James Parnaby · Rating 3 out of 5]

neat little book covering debate between Arendt and 3 fellows thinkers, each over different aspects of her theory of totalitarianism:
1 - to what extent did totalitarian regimes take over the lives of people living within them?
2 - to what extent was 20th century totalitarianism unprecedented?
3 - was totalitarianism a "secular religion"?
Interesting debate and I like the way it is presented as a back and forth, with author attempting to take points from all thinkers. Slightly spoiled by the weird and very 2010s section on Islam at the end