"Permanent Revolution stands out as a classic study of the social structure of totalitarian rule. The problem of totalitarianism and democracy is still with us, and Neumann's dictum 'that it is much more than a problem of constitutional structure of economic progress, it is above all the difference in basic human concepts' is as valid today as it was in 1942. Neuman's analysis of dictatorship opens a new approach to political dynamism for the democracies .(…) For it deals ultimately with a lasting problem: the dignity and personal responsibility of the individual." (from the Preface by Hans Kohn)
Sigmund Neumann (1904-1962) was a political scientist, scholar, humanitarian, teacher at Wesleyan University. A member of the faculty of the Hochschule für Politik in Berlin before 1933, Neumann left Germany when Hitler came to power. He was visiting lecturer at Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Michigan and other colleges and universities.
