J. L. Talmon

Jacob Leib Talmon (1916-1980) was Professor of Modern History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been catagorised as a 'Cold War liberal' because of his devout anti-Marxism which permeates his main works. He notably studied the genealogy of totalitarianism arguing that such political Messianism stemmed from the French Revolution, and stressed the similarities between Jacobinism and Stalinism. Talmon was born in Poland in 1916 and left in 1934 to study at the Hebrew University in Palestine. He continued his studies in France but left for London after the Nazi invasion; in 1943 he was awarded a PhD from the London School of Economics. He coined the terms Totalitarian Democracy and Political Messianism. He received the Israeli Prize in 1957. His main works are The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy and Political Messianism: The Romantic Phase. Talmon argued that Rousseau's position may best be understood as "totalitarian democracy"; that is, as a philosophy in which liberty is realized "only in the pursuit and attainment of an absolute collective purpose." Talmon's anti-utopian liberalism shares great affinities with the political thought of Isaiah Berlin, Friedrich August von Hayek and Karl Popper.

Major Works

The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, 1952
The Nature of Jewish History-Its Universal Significance, 1957
Political Messianism - The Romantic Phase, 1960
The Unique and The Universal, 1965
Romanticism and Revolt, 1967
Israel among the Nations, 1968
The Age of Violence, 1974
The Myth of Nation and Vision of Revulotion, The Origins of Ideological Polarization in the 20th Century, 1981
The Riddle of the Present and the Cunning of History 2000 (hebrew, p.m.)