Love and Saint Augustine

The Life of the Mind

Hannah Arendt

Discusses the nature of thought and volition, examines past philosophical theories, and clarifies the relation between will and freedom.

On Revolution

Hannah Arendt

A unique and fascinating look at violent political change by one of the most profound thinkers of the twentieth century and the author of Eichmann in Jerusalem and The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt’s penetrating observations on the modern world, based on a profound knowledge of the past, have been fundamental to our understanding of our political landscape. On Revolution is her classic exploration of a phenomenon that has reshaped the globe. From the eighteenth-century rebellions in America and France to the explosive changes of the twentieth century, Arendt traces the changing face of revolution and its relationship to war while underscoring the crucial role such events will play in the future. Illuminating and prescient, this timeless work will fascinate anyone who seeks to decipher the forces that shape our tumultuous age.

Responsibility and Judgment

Hannah Arendt

Each of the books that Hannah Arendt published in her lifetime was unique, and to this day each continues to provoke fresh thought and interpretations. This was never more true than for Eichmann in Jerusalem, her account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, where she first used the phrase “the banality of evil.” Her consternation over how a man who was neither a monster nor a demon could nevertheless be an agent of the most extreme evil evoked derision, outrage, and misunderstanding. The firestorm of controversy prompted Arendt to readdress fundamental questions and concerns about the nature of evil and the making of moral choices. Responsibility and Judgment gathers together unpublished writings from the last decade of Arendt’s life, as she struggled to explicate the meaning of Eichmann in Jerusalem. At the heart of this book is a profound ethical investigation, “Some Questions of Moral Philosophy”; in it Arendt confronts the inadequacy of traditional moral “truths” as standards to judge what we are capable of doing, and she examines anew our ability to distinguish good from evil and right from wrong. We see how Arendt comes to understand that alongside the radical evil she had addressed in earlier analyses of totalitarianism, there exists a more pernicious evil, independent of political ideology, whose execution is limitless when the perpetrator feels no remorse and can forget his acts as soon as they are committed. Responsibility and Judgment is an essential work for understanding Arendt’s conception of morality; it is also an indispensable investigation into some of the most troubling and important issues of our time.

On Totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt

More urgent than ever, 3 landmark essays offer a stark warning about the fragility of democracy and the need to think for ourselves. With an introduction by an acclaimed Arendt scholar, here is a compact introduction to Arendt's larger thinking about the specter of totalitarian rule In an era of deep political polarization and digital disinformation, as we find ourselves increasingly isolated from others, the insights of Hannah Arendt have never been more relevant. Bringing together three of Arendt’s most important essays, this essential volume offers a clarifying picture of how totalitarianism takes root in the modern soul. Writing in the immediate aftermath of World War II, Arendt was not merely a witness to history; she was attempting to understand a terrifying new phenomenon that defied all traditional categories of political science and morality. In “Understanding and Politics” she explores the heavy burden of coming to terms with a world that has been shattered. In "On the Nature of Totalitarianism,” she dismantles the idea that totalitarianism is a modern version of tyranny or authoritarianism, revealing instead a radical new form of government that seeks to abolish human spontaneity itself. And in "Ideology and Terror," Arendt lays bare the psychological machinery of oppression. She demonstrates how ideologies replace the complexity of reality with a single, unwavering narrative, and how the pervasive experience of loneliness and social isolation creates the perfect soil for total domination to flourish. The volume serves as a stark warning that the loss of a shared world and the erosion of truth are the first steps toward the abyss. For citizens, students, and thinkers alike, this volume is an indispensable work about the fragile boundaries of democracy and the need for the freedom to think for ourselves.

Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview

And Other Conversations

Hannah Arendt

Arendt was one of the most important thinkers of her time, famous for her idea of "the banality of evil" which continues to provoke debate. This collection provides new and startling insight into Arendt's thoughts about Watergate and the nature of American politics, about totalitarianism and history, and her own experiences as an émigré. Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview and Other Conversations is an extraordinary portrait of one of the twentieth century's boldest and most original thinkers. As well as Arendt's last interview with French journalist Roger Errera, the volume features an important interview from the early 60s with German journalist Gunter Gaus, in which the two discuss Arendt's childhood and her escape from Europe, and a conversation with acclaimed historian of the Nazi period, Joachim Fest, as well as other exchanges. These interviews show Arendt in vigorous intellectual form, taking up the issues of her day with energy and wit. She offers comments on the nature of American politics, on Watergate and the Pentagon Papers, on Israel; remembers her youth and her early experience of anti-Semitism, and then the swift rise of the Hitler; debates questions of state power and discusses her own processes of thinking and writing. Hers is an intelligence that never rests, that demands always of her interlocutors, and her readers, that they think critically. As she puts it in her last interview, just six months before her death at the age of 69, "there are no dangerous thoughts, for the simple reason that thinking itself is such a dangerous enterprise."

The Promise of Politics

Hannah Arendt

In The Promise of Politics, Hannah Arendt examines the conflict between philosophy and politics. In particular, she shows how the tradition of Western political thought, which extends from Plato and Aristotle to its culmination in Marx, failed to account for human action. The concluding section of the book, “Introduction into Politics,” examines an issue that is as timely today as it was when Arendt first wrote about it fifty years ago–the modern prejudice against politics. When politics is considered as a means to an end that lies outside of itself, argues Arendt, when force is used to create “freedom,” the very existence of political principles is imperiled.