Layers, proportions, and the question of historical specificity -- Seams, creases, and the emergence of new conditions of possibility in the nineteenth century -- Some diagnoses and prescriptions -- Innovative departures in the wake of the Great War -- The totalitarian dynamics of Leninism-Stalinism -- Conflicted totalitarianism in fascist Italy -- The hollow triumph of the will in Nazi Germany -- The epochal commonality of the three regimes -- Ending and continuing after the totalitarian moment.