The demise of the idea of ​​’authority’ is one of the defining characteristics of the contemporary Western world. Closely associated with the crisis of tradition and the affirmation of the primacy of individual freedoms and well-being, it can be more specifically analyzed within three domains: the family, the school and the Church. Through the reflection of many nineteenth-twentieth century philosophers – Weber, Guénon, Arendt, Weil, Adorno, Horkheimer with the Frankfurt School, Gentile – Augusto Del Noce follows this parable, illustrated by the most important historical phenomena in recent centuries: revolutions, world wars, and differing versions of totalitarianism. The focus is on the need to distinguish authority – understood as ‘guidance’ – from the notion of power: for Del Noce, the rejection of the former (typical of the revolutionary period) has led to the establishment of the latter; totalitarianism would in this sense represent the maximum extension of power and the denial of authority.