Vladimir Llyich Ulyanov, better known by his alias Lenin, was the first head of the Soviet Union.

Europe rose, decades ago, from World War II and the ruins of totalitarianism. But not far behind the prosperity are the shadows of millions dead and a single haunting but enduring question for people everywhere: Can it happen again? With the Mideast in turmoil and unstable governments dotting the globe, what lessons can we apply from the dark days of 20th-century totalitarianism?

“The totalitarian response entailed a particular, tension-ridden embrace of science, will, spirit and myth that helped produce the disastrous outcomes,” writes Roberts in The Totalitarian Experiment. “And aspects of that whole syndrome remain in place. But… we find, on the basis of a deeper grasp of the human place in history, that we have the wherewithal to minimize the possibility of such negative outcomes in the future.”

He argues that “as we better understand the whole totalitarian trajectory, we can better reassess all that prompted frustration with the modern mainstream in the first place. It was not simply the insecurities of freedom, for example, that led to totalitarianism. From there, we can ponder, in a way more deeply informed by historical experience, the interface between politics and economics and between public and private, the reach of collective responsibility and the modes of collective decision, the relationship between collective action and individual self-realization.”

While Roberts is not pessimistic about the future, neither is he complacent. “Whatever might lie around the corner,” he says, “we best prepare for the future by understanding the most troubling aspects of our modern collective experience so far.”

For more information contact David Roberts at droberts@uga.edu.