Nihilist Order - by David Ohana (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The explosive combination of nihilist leanings together with a craving for totalitarianism was an ideal of philosophers, cultural critics, political theorists, engineers, architects and aesthetes long before it materialised in flesh and blood, not only in technology, but also in fascism, Nazism, bolshevism and radical European political movements. "The Nihilist Order", originally published in three hardcover volumes and now published in a consolidated paperback edition with an encompassing new Introduction, inspired excellent review endorsements, both amongst the academic and public spheres -- and has been heralded as a great achievement in European intellectual and cultural history.

Review Quotes

A provocative and illuminating thesis on Totalitarianism. -- Isaiah Berlin
A turning point in the research of European modernity. -- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Ohana has convincingly shown that a complex cultural, ideological and psychological syndrome, linking nihilism to totalitarianism, represented a significant factor in the gathering storm which marked the early twentieth century. -- Saul Friedlander, author of "The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 19391945"
A major contribution to the understanding of the condition humain. -- Yehoshua Arieli, author of Individualism and Nationalism in American Ideology

About the Author

Professor David Ohana teaches European history at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. He was a visiting fellow at The Sorbonne, Harvard, and Berkeley as well as the first academic director of the Forum for Mediterranean Cultures at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. His many books include: The Origins of Israeli Mythology (Cambridge, 2014), Israel and Its Mediterranean Identity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), Modernism and Zionism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), Political Theologies in the Holy Land: Israeli Messianism and its Critics (Routledge, 2009), and most recently, The Nihilist Order: The Intellectual Roots of Totalitarianism (SAP 2016).