Personal essays recount Todorov's experiences with and understanding of different kinds of totalitarianism.--

Tzvetan Todorov (1939-2017) was a philosopher, literary theorist, and historian of ideas. He was born in Bulgaria and emigrated to France in 1963. He taught at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris beginning in 1968 and throughout his academic career. He also taught widely in the English-speaking world, notably at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and University of California, Berkeley. He was the author of dozens of books.