Totalitarianism and political religion : an intellectual history / A. James Gregor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gregor, A. James (Anthony James), 1929- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Totalitarianism--History.

Totalitarianism.

Fascism--History.

Fascism.

History.

National socialism.

Religion and politics--History.

Religion and politics.

Physical Description:

xiii, 300 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2012]

Summary:

The totalitarian systems that arose in the twentieth century presented themselves as secular. Yet, as A. James Gregor argues in this book, they themselves functioned as religions. Gregor presents an intellectual history of the rise of these political religions, tracing a set of ideas that include belief that a certain text contains impeccable truths; notions of infallible, charismatic leadership; and the promise of human redemption through strict obedience, selfless sacrifice, total dedication, and unremitting labor.

Gregor provides unique insight into the variants of Marxism, Fascism, and National Socialism that dominated our immediate past. He explores the seeds of totalitarianism as secular faith in the nineteenth-century ideologies of Ludwig Feuerbach, Moses Hess, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Richard Wagner. He follows the growth of those seeds as the twentieth century became host to Leninism and Stalinism, Italian Fascism, and German National Socialism-each a totalitarian institution and a political religion. Gregor concludes by finding an example of the devolution of political religion in Pol Pot's genocidal Democratic Kampuchea and speculating on the character and future of such political faiths and the totalitarianisms they attend. Book jacket.

Contents:

Hegelians after Hegel

Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx : history as religion

Leninism : revolution as religion

Fascism : the antecedents

Fascism : the state as religion

The religiopolitical background of national socialism

National socialism : race as religion

Consolidation and decay.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804781305

0804781303

OCLC:

751250348