While there is no shortage of texts on totalitarianism, there are very few introductory texts on the topic. Most works instead tend towards popular/polemic books or tend to be substantially beyond an entry-level readership. Texts in the market that focus on totalitarianism in general tend to fall into four categories: 1) far too long and complicated for the general reader; 2) far too philosophically complicated; 3) require an extensive amount of background information for the full text to make sense; 4) out-of-date and often barely in print.

Phillip W. Gray is known in this wider area and has already contributed more research focused work related to the fields this book intersects with. There is a large market for this book beyond Politics, like 20th century history and sociology (social movements).