The symbol of the Leviathan came to the forefront in political theory as the structure and the ideological justification of the state underwent radical change in at least three European countries from the early 1920s to the 1940s. Thus the terrifying image of Leviathan has sometimes given rise to a surprising historiography of twentiethcentury totalitarian states tracing them back to the origins of modern political thought as if there were a direct line of descent from Hobbes to Mussolini Hitler and Stalin or worse still as if Hobbess Leviathan 1651 were an exact anticipation of twentiethcentury political catastrophes. The differing interpretations of Hobbes proposed by Strauss Tnnies Schmitt Vialatoux Capitant Pareto Collingwood and Oakeshott are here interpreted in the perspective of the interwar transformation of Europe.