Modernism and Totalitarianism evaluates a broad range of post-1945 scholarship. Totalitarianism, as the common ideological trajectory of Nazism and Stalinism, is dissected as a synthesis of three modernist intellectual currents which determine its particular, inherited character.
"With detailed endnotes, an excellent primary and secondary bibliography, he synthesises the work of earlier theorists and offers an original analysis of totalitarianism for a new generation of readers. ... Modernism and Totalitarianism will have a wide appeal to intellectual and political historians. Richard Shorten is to be commended for his analysis of the 'shared ideological space' of totalitarianism ... ." (Siobhan Kattago, The European Legacy, Vol. 22 (2), 2017)
'An extremely worthwhile book that constitutes a significant contribution to a much-discussed topic... It meets an obvious need for a comprehensive survey among so many more specialised studies. I cannot think of any other work that quite does the job' - Harry Redner, formerly Reader in Politics at Monash University