Of politics and social science : ‘Totalitarianism’ in the dialogue of David Riesman and Hannah Arendt
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
European Journal of Political Theory
Publication Date
4-1-2004
Volume
3
Issue
2
First Page
191
Last Page
217
Publisher
Sage Publications Ltd.
Keywords
Concentration Camps, David Riesman, Hannah Arendt, Social Science, Totalitarianism
Abstract
During the late 1940s and early 1950s, David Riesman and Hannah Arendt were engaged in an animated discussion about the meaning and character of totalitarianism. Their disagreement reflected, in part, different experiences and dissonant intellectual backgrounds. Arendt abhorred the social sciences, finding them pretentious and obfuscating. Riesman, in contrast, abandoned a career in law to take up the sociological vocation, which he combined with his own heterodox brand of humanistic psychology. This article delineates the stakes of the Arendt Riesman debate by examining Arendt’s critique of social science and Riesman’s defence of a sociological interpretation of totalitarianism. In addition, the article argues that Arendt’s theory of totalitarianism misdescribed the nature of Nazi and Bolshevik societies in ways that damaged her political account more generally. Riesman intuited that weakness and, as the following article shows, modern historical research has confirmed it.
DOI
10.1177/1474885104041047
Print ISSN
14748851
E-ISSN
17412730
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2004 SAGE Publications Ltd.
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Baehr, P. (2004). Of politics and social science: ‘Totalitarianism’ in the dialogue of David Riesman and Hannah Arendt. European Journal of Political Theory, 3(2), 191-217. doi: 10.1177/1474885104041047