The definition of totalitarianism has long been shaped by the narrow confines of cold war-era ideas. In this important study, William Jones recovers, reinterprets, and revitalizes the fragments of a lost debate on modern dictatorship, revealing a longer and more challenging history of totalitarian theory than most commentators have granted. Jones traces the historical development of the concept of totalitarianism through the writings of key German leftists from the late 1920s to the cold war era. A record of bitter disagreement about the definition, origins, nature, and means of overcoming totalitarianism, these documents articulate a critical "third path" that challenged the legacy of Nazism, while seeking to avoid both the bipolar power grid and the Stalinist brand of Marxism. In an era that has retooled totalitarianism and rendered cold war politics obsolete, the writings of these neglected intellectuals remain vital implements in the study of history, politics, society, ideology, and culture.