Hannah Arendt (Routledge Critical Thinkers)

✍ Scribed by Simon Swift

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 140
• Series: Routledge Critical Thinkers
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Hannah Arendt's work offers a powerful critical engagement with the cultural and philosophical crises of mid-twentieth-century Europe. Her idea of the banality of evil, made famous after her report on the trial of the Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, remains controversial to this day.

In the face of 9/11 and the 'war on terror', Arendt's work on the politics of freedom and the rights of man in a democratic state are especially relevant. Her impassioned plea for the creation of a public sphere through free, critical thinking and dialogue provides a significant resource for contemporary thought. 

Covering her key ideas from The Origins of Totalitarianism and The Human Condition  as well as some of her less well-known texts, and focussing in detail on Arendt's idea of storytelling, this guide brings Arendt's work into the twenty-first century while helping students to understand its urgent relevance for the contemporary world.

✦ Table of Contents

BOOK COVER......Page 1
TITLE......Page 6
COPYRIGHT......Page 7
CONTENTS......Page 10
SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE......Page 11
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 14
ABBREVIATIONS......Page 15
WHY ARENDT?......Page 17
1 BIOGRAPHY, THEORY AND POLITICS......Page 24
2 THINKING AND SOCIETY......Page 35
3 ACTING......Page 48
4 LABOUR, WORK AND MODERNISM......Page 60
5 JUDGING: FROM KANT TO EICHMANN......Page 71
6 ANTI-SEMITISM......Page 82
7 RACISM, EMPIRE AND NATION......Page 93
8 TOTALITARIANISM......Page 103
CODA: EVIL......Page 114
AFTER ARENDT......Page 117
FURTHER READING......Page 128
WORKS CITED......Page 133
INDEX......Page 136