Despite the range of detailed histories on the Holocaust, there have been few attempts to trace the ideological and historical background of what is, for many, the defining event of the 20th century. In this successor to Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism", Traverso rejects the belief that the Holocaust was an historical aberration, completely outside the trajectory of Western civilization. Looking at innovations such as the guillotine and the machine gun, and institutions such as assembly lines and prisons, the author sets out to demonstrate that the Holocaust was the culmination of Western liberal thought.
Author Biography
Enzo Traverso is professor of political science at the Jules Verne University of Amiens and the author of numerous books on history and totalitarianism.
