He studied the genealogy of totalitarianism, arguing that political Messianism stemmed from the French Revolution, and stressed the similarities between Jacobinism and Stalinism.

Talmon was born in Rypin, a town in central Poland, into an Orthodox Jewish family.

He left in 1934 to study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, then in the British Mandate of Palestine, now Israel.

Talmon argued that Rousseau's position may best be understood as "totalitarian democracy", a philosophy in which liberty is realized "only in the pursuit and attainment of an absolute collective purpose."

Following the 1967 Six-Day War, Talmon engaged in a debate with Arnold J. Toynbee on the role of Jews and Zionism in history.