Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism and Nazism Compared

In essays written jointly by specialists on Soviet and German history, the contributors to this book rethink and rework the nature of Stalinism and Nazism and establish a new methodology for viewing their histories that goes well beyond the now-outdated twentieth-century models of totalitarianism, ideology, and personality. Doing the labor of comparison gives us the means to ascertain the historicity of the two extraordinary regimes and the wreckage they have left. With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, scholars of Europe are no longer burdened with the political baggage that constricted research and conditioned interpretation and have access to hitherto closed archives. The time is right for a fresh look at the two gigantic dictatorships of the twentieth century and for a return to the original intent of thought on totalitarian regimes – understanding the intertwined trajectories of socialism and nationalism in European and global history.

• Top scholars in two fields writing joint essays exploring the two most influential dictatorships of the twentieth century • Draws on new scholarship and, on the Soviet side, new archival data available only since the collapse of the Soviet Union • Provides an evaluation of Nazism in comparative perspective and establishes a new model for an interactive inquiry.