Henry Rousso’s Stalinism and Nazism: History and Memory Compared situates itself at the center of a number of important debates that have not only shaped the field of “contemporary history” in France in the last decade but also generated considerable and persistent controversy in the public forum as well.

As its title suggests, this book engages in the first instance with the heated and often ideologically loaded debate surrounding the comparison of Communism and fascism, and National Socialism in particular. Because the comparison of these ideologies in their various expressions inevitably involves discussion of the applicability and viability of the concept of totalitarianism, Stalinism and Nazism addresses this subject as well.

Henry Rousso (born in 1954 in Cairo) is a contemporary French historian specializing in World War II France.

He studied at the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud, the Sorbonne, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.

Rousso's notable work includes a seminal book on Vichy France entitled The Vichy Syndrome (1987) where he coined a phrase commonly used to describe the era, passé qui ne passe pas ("past that doesn't pass"- the expression was possibly inspired by Ernst Nolte's June 6, 1986 article entitled Die Vergangenheit, die nicht vergehen will — "The past that does not want to pass away").

Rousso currently serves as Director of Research at the French national scientific research Center (CNRS) with which he has been involved since 1981.