Hope and Memory [Paperback]

Tzvetan Todorov (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 2005

Todorov's contention is that totalitarianism imposed itself because, more than any other political system, it fed on people's need for the absolute: it promised to endow life with meaning by enabling them to take part in the construction of paradise on earth. As a result, millions of people lost their lives in the name of a higher good. Tzvetan Todorov's brilliantly incisive book examines the history of the past century by analyzing its spectacular political conflicts and by offering moving profiles of individuals who, at great personal cost, resisted the strictures of the communist and Nazi regimes. Hope and Memory is a profound moral and political history by one of the world's most original thinkers. It confirms how, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the crimes of the past continue to cast long shadows.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'Almost alone among contemporary critics, Tzvetan Todorov has chosen to apply his prodigious talents to the literature of twentieth-century totalitarianism. His unique gift is his ability to elucidate the memoirs and writings of some of the century's greatest survivors, not merely discovering their literary qualities, but also finding in their works moral and political lessons, relevant to us all.' Anne Applebaum, author of Gulag"

About the Author

Tzvetan Todorov is Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris and the author of many books, most recently Imperfect Garden: The Legacy of Humanism and The Fragility of Goodness.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Books (January 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843543605
• ISBN-13: 978-1843543602
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,773,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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