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Seeds of Tyranny

by Philip Lee Williams

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Intro   |   Alike But Different   |   Embraced By the People   |   Beyond Democracy   |   Cautious Optimism

A Distinguished Career in Brief

 

 

Intro

The totalitarian states of the 20th century arose from complex and often counterintuitive sets of circumstances. We must better understand their histories if we are to prevent recurrences both literally and in new and different forms.

Scholars have struggled for decades to find a coherent way to explain why, in the seemingly forward-looking 20th century, such civilized countries as Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union became totalitarian states where absolute power led to the deaths of millions. Historian David D. Roberts has spent much of his research career examining the intellectual foundations of totalitarianism, and he says that while exact replications of those World War II-era tyrannies are extremely unlikely, we have so far learned too little to prevent something comparable in the future.

Historian David Roberts studies the intellectual foundations of totalitarianism.

“People ask me ‘Can it happen again?’” says Roberts, who is Albert Berry Saye Professor of History at UGA. “I answer that we will not have put the possibility behind us until we have learned deeper lessons—beyond moralism and triumphalism—from that experience.”

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Intro   |   Alike But Different   |   Embraced By the People   |   Beyond Democracy   |   Cautious Optimism

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