''How could such a book speak so powerfully to our present moment? The short answer is that we, too, live in dark times'' Washington PostHannah Arendt''s chilling analysis of the conditions that led to the Nazi and Soviet totalitarian regimes is a warning from history about the fragility of freedom, exploring how propaganda, scapegoats, terror and political isolation all aided the slide towards total domination. ''A non-fiction bookend to Nineteen Eighty-Four'' The New York Times''The political theorist who wrote about the Nazis and the ''banality of evil'' has become a surprise bestseller'' Guardian