Understanding the origins of political oppression, in general, and of its extreme modality, violent totalitarianism, in particular, is a requirement for all lovers of liberty and of human emancipation.
A good starting point at the philosophical level is Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism (first edition by Schocken Books [New York: 1951]; I read a reprint of the 1972 edition [New York: Harvest Book/Harcourt, 1976]).
The biopolitical perspective -- i.e., the extermination of life as the outcome of exclusionary governance -- is illuminated by Giorgio Agamben in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998).
No doubt Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin come to mind as the paragons of evil in any analysis of the last century.
For an historical account, I recommend Richard Overy's The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia (London: Penguin, 2005). A multidisciplinary effort is performed by Ron Rosenbaum in Explaining Hitler. The Search for the Origins of His Evil (London: Papermac/Macmillan, 1999).
Below is a documentary on the aforesaid monsters:
Double-click on the video to enlarge and to access the next segments.
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