THE TOTALITARIAN TEMPTATION by JEAN-FRANCOIS REVEL 311 pages. Doubleday. $8.95.
The pattern has become classic: a nation emerges from the colonial yoke, lustily declares its independenceand then succumbs to the totalitarian mode. French Philosopher Jean-Francis Revel, author of Without Marx or Jesus, tries to analyze this alarming trend in a book filled with mordant wit and intensity. As a kind of historical prosecuting attorney, Revel puts Joseph Stalin in the dock, then offers witnesses to the crime of totalitarianism. It was the murderous Russian dictator who showed the 20th century how to construct a hermetically sealed tyranny, says Revel. It is the...
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