Memoria del mal, tentación del bien

Memory of evil, temptation of good is undoubtedly one of the most important books in the work of Tzvetan Todorov. We reissue it now after more than a decade without being available to readers in Spanish. For Todorov, the 20th century was, above all, the century that saw the birth of a new, extreme evil, and an unprecedented political regime, totalitarianism, which in its heyday dominated the world and whose consequences are still present among us. So, first of all, Todorov analyzes the confrontation between totalitarianism, both fascist and communist, and democracies. The second analysis of him focuses on memory. Is memory always and necessarily a good thing, and forgetfulness an absolute curse? Does the past allow us to better understand the present or does it serve, more often, to hide it? Are all uses of the past recommendable? The memories of the century will therefore, in turn, be subjected to examination. The third analysis focuses on the present. Once totalitarianism has been defeated, has the reign of good arrived? Or new dangers await our liberal democracies? The three aforementioned analyzes are mixed with the memory of some individual destinies, strongly marked by totalitarianism but who knew how to resist it. Those luminous figures of the few individuals of dramatic destiny and relentless lucidity who continued to believe, despite everything, that man deserves to continue being man's objective.