Browse Hierarchy HST5398: Totalitarianism: Authoritarian Politics in History and Theory, 1920 to the Present

This module introduces students to the history and theory of authoritarian politics in the twentieth century and beyond. Starting with the collapse of empires after the First World War, we look at how different regimes and movements came to be understood as 'totalitarian'. Why did Italian fascism, Nazism and Stalinism emerge and how did they operate? Through the Second World War, the heyday of anti-colonial struggle and the Cold War to the War on Terror and fears about techno-authoritarianism, we will consider how the concept of totalitarianism has been theorised and contested by writers, activists, historians and political scientists. What does this history tell us about modern politics? This course combines social and cultural history with intellectual history and brings together classic texts and recent scholarship. Students will connect primary sources to historiographical and theoretical commentary, and cover themes including fascism and communism, racism and colonialism, and terror and resistance. In doing so they will draw new connections between the history and theory of modern politics.