Hannah Arendt did not consider fascist Italy as a totalitarian regime. The present article offers a critical analysis of this interpretation which exercised a considerable influence on the study of fascism. Her views are examined in the light of available works of the period, of works she effectively used, and of their intellectual environment. This discussion of sources demonstrates the flimsiness the evidence on which Hannah Arendt based her analysis of Italian fascism. The question of the analytical coherence of her work is also raised through a comparative discussion of her thinking on fascism with interpretations of National-Socialism or Russian communism.