Essays
Labor, Work, Action
– In Amor Mundi, pp. 29-42. Springer Netherlands, 1987.Abstract: For this short hour, I should like to raise an apparently odd question. My question is: What does an active life consist of? What do we do when we are active? In asking this question, I shall assume that the age-old distinction between two ways of… More
Collective Responsibility
– In Amor Mundi, pp. 43-50. Springer Netherlands, 1987.Abstract: Although I agree with what I think are the two main statements of Mr. Feinberg’s paper, I must admit that I had some difficulty with it. My agreement concerns his firm distinction between guilt and responsibility. “Collective responsibility,”… More
Thinking – Part III
– The New Yorker, December 5, 1977.Abstract: Reflections about thinking. Writer gives the answer of Greek thinkers to the question: “What makes us think?” They felt that philosophizing transforms mortals into godlike creatures. In pre-philosophic Greece men strove for immortality by… More
Thinking – Part II
– The New Yorker, November 28, 1977.Abstract: Reflections about thinking. Thinking, willing, and judgment are the three basic mental activities; they cannot be derived from each other and they cannot be reduced to a common denominator. To the question “What makes us think?” there is… More
Thinking – Part I
– The New Yorker, November 21, 1977.Abstract: Reflections about thinking. Writer gives the reasons why she is preoccupied with mental activities: 1) The thoughtlessness of evil as demonstrated by the Nazi Adolf Eichmann at his trial in Jerusalem; 2) What are we doing when we do nothing but… More
Home to Roost: A Bicentennial Address
– New York Review of Books, 26 June 1975, pp. 3-6.(Reprinted in S.B. Warner, The American Experiment. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1976, pp. 61-77, with Arendt’s comments.) Introduction: The crises of the Republic, of this form of government and its institutions of liberty, could be detected for… More
Remembering Wystan H. Auden, Who Died In the Night Of the Twenty-Eighth Of September, 1973
– The New Yorker, January 20, 1975.Summary: Reflections about memories of the poet Wystan Auden, who died Sept. 28, 1973. Quotes from several of his poems; gives comments of some who wrote about him; discusses his personality & work. Writer met Auden in 1958 and they were good friends.
Washington’s ‘Problem-Solvers’: Where They Went Wrong
– New York Times, 5 April 1972, Op-Ed page.Lying in Politics: Reflections on The Pentagon Papers
– New York Review of Books 17/8 (18 November 1971): 30-39.Reprinted in Crises of the Republic. Introduction: The Pentagon Papers, like so much else in history, tell different stories, teach different lessons to different readers. Some claim they have only now understood that Vietnam was the “logical” outcome of… More
Martin Heidegger at Eighty
– New York Review of Books 17/6 (21 October 1971): 50-54. Translated by Albert Hofstadter.(Originally in German, Merkur 10 [1969]: 893-902. Translated by Albert Hofstadter. Reprinted in English in Michael Murray, ed., Heidegger and Modern Philosophy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978.) Introduction: Martin Heidegger’s eightieth birthday… More
Thinking and Moral Considerations: A Lecture
– Social Research, 38(3) (Autumn 1971): 417–46. Reprinted in Social Research, 51(1) (Spring 1984): 7–37.Reprinted in Responsibility and Judgment.
Thoughts on Politics and Revolution (Interview)
– New York Review of Books 16/7 (22 April 1971): 8-20.An interview conducted by Adelbert Reif in the summer of 1970, translated by Denver Lindley; reprinted in Crises of the Republic.
Reflections: Civil Disobedience
– The New Yorker, September 12, 1970.Abstract: Writer discusses the grave threat to our judicial system. For many years now the law-enforcement agencies have been unable to enforce the statues against drug traffic, mugging, and burglary. Considering that the chances that criminal offenders in… More
Distinctions: A letter of reply
– New York Review of Books 13 (1 January 1970): 36.Letter to the editor by Hannah Arendt, in response to J.M. Cameron’s review of Arendt’s Between Past and Future and Men in Dark Times.
The Technocratic Mind: A letter of reply
– New York Review of Books (19 June 1969).Hannah Arendt replies to review of her “Reflections on Violence.”
Reflections on Violence
– Journal of International Affairs, Winter, 1969, pp. 1-35.Reprinted in New York Review of Books 12/4 (27 February 1969): 19-31. Expanded as On Violence and reprinted in Crises of the Republic. Introduction: Violence, being instrumental by nature, is rational to the extent that it is effective in reaching the… More
Walter Benjamin
– The New Yorker, October 19, 1968.Abstract: Essay on Walter Benjamin, a German-Jewish writer, who died in 1940 & has achieved posthumous fame. Benjamin’s position was that of a free-lance writer but his publications were infrequent & he felt that his father should give him a… More
He’s All Dwight: Dwight Macdonald’s Politics
– New York Review of Books 11/2 (1 August 1968): 31-33.Introduction: When I was asked to write a brief introduction to the reprint edition of Politics I was tempted to yield to the rather pleasant melancholy of “once upon a time” and to indulge in the nostalgic contemplation that seems to be the appropriate… More
The Conquest of Space and The Stature of Man
– Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought (1968): 265-80.Is America By Nature A Violent Society?; Lawlessness Is Inherent In the Uprooted
– New York Times Magazine, 28 April 1968, p. 24.Truth and Politics
– The New Yorker, February 25, 1967.Abstract: An essay on the antithesis of truth and politics. While probably no former time tolerated so many diverse opinions on religious and philosophical matters factual truth, if it happens to oppose a given group’s profit or pleasure, is greeted… More
Bibliography: A letter of reply
– New York Review of Books (1 December 1966).Hannah Arendt follows up on her review of J.P. Nettl’s Rosa Luxemburg.
What Is Permitted to Jove
– The New Yorker, November 5, 1966.Abstract: Profile of Bertolt Brecht, world-famous German playwright & poet. His political biography is a kind of case history of the uncertain relationship bet. poetry & politics. He was a strict adherent to the Communist idealogy all his life. In… More
A Heroine of the Revolution (Review)
– New York Review of Books 7/5 (6 October 1966): 21-27.A review of J.P. Nettl, Rosa Luxemburg; included in Men in Dark Times.
The Jewish Establishment: A letter of reply
– New York Review of Books (17 March 1966).Hannah Arendt replies to responses of her essay, “The Formidable Dr. Robinson.”
The Formidable Dr. Robinson: A Reply to the Jewish Establishment
– New York Review of Books 5/12 (20 January 1966): 26-30.Hannah Arendt replies to criticism of her reporting on the Eichmann trial.
John XXIII: A letter of reply
– The New York Review of Books (16 September 1965).Hannah Arendt’s reply to a letter regarding her essay, “The Christian Pope.”
Some Questions of Moral Philosophy
– Social Research (1994): 739-764.The Christian Pope (Review)
– New York Review of Books 4/10 (17 June 1965): 5-7.A review of Pope John XXIII, Journal of a Soul. Translated by D. White; included in Men in Dark Times.
Nathalie Sarraute
– New York Review of Books 2/2 (5 March 1964): 5-6.A review of Nathalie Sarraute, The Golden Fruits. Translated by Maria Jolas. Excerpt: When Nathalie Sarraute published her first novel, Portrait of a Man Unknown, in 1948, Sartre, in an Introduction, placed her with such authors of “entirely negative… More
The Fate of the Union: Kennedy and After
– New York Review of Books 1/9 (26 December 1963): 10.Introduction: Was this “the loudest shot since Sarajevo”—as a BBC commentator, stunned by impact of the news, said? Does this shot mean that the brief “moment of comparative calm” and “rising hope,” of which the dead President spoke only two… More
Man’s Conquest of Space
– American Scholar 32 (Autumn 1963): 527-40.Eichmann in Jerusalem (The New Yorker)
– The New Yorker, in five issues: February 16, February 23, March 2, March 9, March 16; 1963.Summary: Before it was published as a book, Arendt’s report from the trial of Eichmann appeared in five installments in The New Yorker. Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V
The Cold War and the West
– "The Cold War and the West." Partisan Review 29/1 (Winter 1962): 10-20.Freedom and Politics
– In Freedom and Serfdom, pp. 191-217. Springer Netherlands, 1961.Abstract: To deal with the relationship between freedom and political government in the space of a single, short treatise is not possible. Indeed, a whole book would hardly suffice to deal adequately with the subject. For freedom, which is only very seldom… More
Tradition and the Modern Age
– "Tradition and the modern age." Approaches to Political Thought (2009): 73.Revolution and Public Happiness
– Commentary, November 1960.Excerpt: The purpose of the following reflections is to rehabilitate the word “revolution.” No other word, except perhaps “freedom,” will be more urgently needed in the years to come, and no other word, without exception, has been more gravely… More
Society and Culture
– Daedalus 89, no. 2 (1960): 278-287.Reflections on Little Rock
– Dissent 6, no. 1 (1959): 45-56.A Reply to Critics
– Dissent, March 1959, pp. 179-181.The Modern Concept of History
– Review of Politics 20/4 (October 1958): 570-90.Reprinted in Between Past and Future. Introduction: Herodotus, who has been rightly called the Father of Western history, tells us in the first sentence of the Persian Wars that the purpose of his enterprise is to preserve that which owes its existence to men… More
Totalitarian Imperialism: Reflections on the Hungarian revolution
– The Journal of Politics 20, no. 01 (1958): 5-43.Introduction: As I write this, one year has passed since the flames of the Hungarian revolution illuminated the immense landscape of post-war totalitarianism for twelve long days. This was a true event whose stature will not depend upon victory or defeat; its… More
History and Immortality
– Partisan Review 24/1 (Winter 1957): 11-53.Authority in the Twentieth Century
– The Review of Politics 18, no. 04 (1956): 403-417.Abstract: The rise of fascist, communist and totalitarian movements and the development of the two totalitarian regimes, Stalin’s after 1929 and Hitler’s after 1938, took place against a background of a more or less general, more or less dramatic… More
The Personality of Waldemar Gurian
– Review of Politics 17/1 (January 1955): 33-42.Reprinted in Men in Dark Times. Abstract: He was a man of many friends and a friend to all of them, men and women, priests and laymen, people in many countries and from practically all walks of life. Friendship was what made him at home in this world and he… More
The Threat of Conformism
– Commonweal, September 24, 1954, pp. 607-609Europe and the Atom Bomb
– Commonweal 60/24 (17 September 1954): 578-80.Dream and Nightmare
– Commonweal, September 10, 1954, pp. 551-554.Excerpt: WHAT image does Europe have of America? Whatever it may be, it is a reflection of actual conditions in this country, it contains an evaluation of America’s role in international politics, and it expresses the attitude of the nation concerned… More
The Crisis in Education
– Between past and future (1968): 173-196.Philosophy and Politics
– Social Research: An International Quarterly 71, no. 3 (2004): 427-454.The Great Tradition
– Social Research: An International Quarterly 74, no. 3 (2007): 713-726. Written in 1953.Abstract: The Hannah Arendt Bluecher Literary Trust has granted permission to Social Research to publish for the first time a lecture given by Arendt in 1953, the provenance of which is her so-called Marx manuscripts. The lecture here entitled “The… More
Understanding and Politics
– Partisan Review, vol. 20, no. 4 (July–August 1953): 377–92.Reprinted in Essays in Understanding: 1930–1954.
Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government
– Review of Politics 15/3 (July 1953): 303-27.Included in the 1958 edition of The Origins of Totalitarianism. A German version appeared in Offener Horizont: Fetschrift für Karl Jaspers. Munich: Piper, 1953. Introduction: The following considerations have grown out of a study of the origins, the… More
The Ex-Communists
– Commonweal, March 20, 1953, pp. 595-598.Rejoinder to Eric Voegelin’s Review of The Origins of Totalitarianism
– Review of Politics 15 (January 1953): 76-85.The History of the Great Crime (Review)
– Commentary, March 1952.Excerpt: Léon Poliakov’s excellent book on the Third Reich and the Jews is the first to describe the last phases of the Nazi regime on the basis, strictly, of primary source material. This consists chiefly of documents presented at the Nuremberg Trials and… More
The Road to the Dreyfus Affair (Review)
– Commentary 11 (February 1951): 201-03.A review of Robert F. Byrnes, Anti-Semitism in Modern France. Excerpt: Anti-Semitism is a deplorably neglected area of modern history, and every contribution that does more than simply add another title to the formidable library of apologetics,… More
The Aftermath of Nazi Rule: Report from Germany
– Commentary, October 1950.Social Science Techniques and The Study of Concentration Camps
– Jewish Social Studies (1950): 49-64.The Imperialist Character
– Review of Politics 12/3 (July 1950): 303-20.Used in The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 2. Abstract: Of the two main political devices of imperialist rule, race was discovered in South Africa and bureaucracy in Algeria, Egypt and India; the former was originally the hardly conscious reaction to tribes… More
Peace or Armistice in the Near East?
– Review of Politics 12/1 (January 1950): 56-82.Abstract: Peace in the Near East is essential to the State of Israel, to the Arab people and to the Western world. Peace, as distinguished from an armistice, cannot be imposed from the outside, it can only be the result of negotiations, of mutual compromise… More
The Achievement of Hermann Broch
– Kenyon Review 11/3 (Summer 1949): 476-83.Single Track to Zion (Review)
– Saturday Review of Literature 32 (5 February 1949): 22-23.A review of Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error: The Autobiography of Chaim Weizman.
Totalitarian Terror
– Review of Politics 11/1 (January 1949): 112-15.Review of David J. Dallin and Boris I. Nicolaevsky: Forced Labor in Soviet Russia.
The Concentration Camps (Review)
– The Partisan Review, July 1948, pp. 743-763.To Save the Jewish Homeland
– Commentary, May 1948, pp. 398-406.Jewish Culture in This Time and Place: Creating a Cultural Atmosphere
– Commentary, November 1947.What is Existenz Philosophy? (Review)
– Partisan Review 8/1 (Winter 1946): 34-56.The Ivory Tower of Common Sense (Review)
– Nation, 19 October 1946, pp. 447-49.A review of John Dewey, Problems of Men.
Expansion and the Philosophy of Power
– Sewanee Review 54 (October 1946): 601-16.Used in The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 2.
No Longer and Not Yet (Review)
– Nation, 14 September 1946, pp. 300-302.A review of Hermann Broch, The Death of Virgil. Translated by J.S. Untermeyer.
The Image of Hell (Review)
– Commentary 2/3 (September 1946): 291-95.Review of The Black Book: The Nazi Crime Against the Jewish People; and Hitler’s Professors, by Max Weinreich.
The Jewish State: Fifty Years After
– Commentary 1 (May 1946): 1-8.Introduction: Rereading Herzl’s The Jewish State today is a peculiar experience. One becomes aware that those things in it that Herzl’s own contemporaries would have called utopian now actually determine the ideology and policies of the Zionist… More
The Streets of Berlin (Review)
– Nation, 23 March 1946, pp. 350-51.A review of Robert Gilbert, Meine Reime Deine Reime.
French Existentialism
– Nation, 23 February 1946m pp. 226-28.Also in One Hundred Years of the Nation.
Imperialism: Road to Suicide
– Commentary 1 (February 1946): 27-35.Introduction: Imperialism, which first entered the scene toward the end of the last century, has today become the dominant political phenomenon. A war fought on an apocalyptic scale has revealed the suicidal tendencies inherent in every consistently… More
Proof Positive
– Nation, 5 January 1946, p. 22.A brief review of Victor Lange, Modern German Literature.
Privileged Jews
– Jewish Social Studies 8/1 (January 1946): 3-30.Reprinted in Duker and Ben-Horin, Emancipation and Counteremancipation. New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1947.
The Too Ambitious Reporter (Review)
– Commentary 2 (January 1946): 94-95.Review of The Yogi and the Commissar, and Twilight Bar, by Arthur Koestler.
Power Politics Triumphs (Review)
– Commentary 1 (December 1945): 92-93.Review of Crossroads of Two Continents, by Feliks Gross.
Approaches to the “German Problem”
– The Partisan Review, Winter 1945, pp. 93-106.Parties, Movements, and Classes
– Partisan Review 12/4 (Fall 1945): 504-12.(Used in The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 2.)
Imperialism, Nationalism, Chauvinism
– Review of Politics 7/4 (October 1945): 441-63.Used in The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 2.
Christianity and Revolution
– Nation, pp. 288-89.A review of Adventures in Grace by Raissa Maritain
Dilthey as Philosopher and Historian (Review)
– Partisan Review 12/3 (Summer 1945): 404-06.A review of H.A. Hodges, Wilhelm Dilthey: An Introduction.
Nightmare and Flight (Review)
– Partisan Review, 12/2 (Spring 1945): 259-60.A review of Denis de Rougemont, The Devil’s Share.
Franz Kafka: A Revaluation
– Partisan Review 11, no. 4 (1944).Race-Thinking Before Racism
– The Review of Politics 6, no. 01 (1944): 36-73.Abstract: If race-thinking were a German invention, as it is now sometimes asserted, then “German thinking” (whatever that may be) was victorious in many parts of the spiritual world long before the Nazis started their illfated attempt at world conquest.… More
We Refugees
– Menorah Journal 31, no. 1 (1943): 69-77.Why the Crémieux Decree Was Abrogated
– Contemporary Jewish Record 6/2 (April 1943): 115-23.From the Dreyfus Affair to France Today
– Jewish Social Studies (1942): 195-240.A Believer in European Unity (Review)
– Review of Politics 4/2 (April 1942): 245-47.Review of Paul R. Sweet: Friedrich von Gentz. Defender of the Old Order.
Philosophy and Sociology
– Essays in Understanding (1994). Written in 1930.The Hannah Arendt Papers
– The Library of Congress.“The papers of the author, educator, and political philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) are one of the principal sources for the study of modern intellectual life. Located in the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress, they constitute a large… More