Commentary

The Banality of Evil: The Demise of a Legend

– Wolin, Richard. Jewish Review of Books, Fall 2014.
Introduction: There have been few phrases that have proved as controversial as the famous subtitle Hannah Arendt chose to sum up her account of the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann. From the moment the articles that eventually comprised her book Eichmann in… More

Unlearning with Hannah Arendt

– Knott, Marie Luise. Unlearning with Hannah Arendt. Other Press, LLC, 2014.
From the Publisher: “After observing the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt articulated her controversial concept of the “banality of evil,” thereby posing one of the most chilling and divisive moral questions of the twentieth century: How can… More

Hannah Arendt and the Jewish Question

– Bernstein, Richard J. Hannah Arendt and the Jewish Question. John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
From the Publisher: Hannah Arendt (1906-­1975) was one of the most original and interesting political thinkers of the twentieth century. In this new interpretation of her career, philosopher Richard Bernstein situates Arendt historically as an engaged Jewish… More

Hannah Arendt: A Reinterpretation of her Political Thought

– Canovan, Margaret. Hannah Arendt: A reinterpretation of her political thought. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
From the Publisher: Margaret Canovan argues in this book that much of the published work on Arendt has been flawed by serious misunderstandings, arising from a failure to see her work in its proper context. The author shows how such misunderstanding was… More

The Lies of “Hannah Arendt”

– Stern, Sol. Commentary. 136, no. 2 (2013): 43-48.
Excerpt: This year marks the 50th anniversary of Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. In the history of American publishing, there has never been anything quite like the fevered public debates, the personal… More

Hannah Arendt: A Critical Introduction

– Rothman, Barbara Katz. "Hannah Arendt: A Critical Introduction." Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews 41, no. 3 (2012): 319-320.
From the Publisher: “Hannah Arendt is one of the most famous political theorists of the twentieth century, yet in the social sciences her work has rarely been given the attention it deserves. This careful and comprehensive study introduces Arendt to a… More

Hannah Arendt: Radical Conservative

– Horowitz, Irving Louis. Hannah Arendt: Radical Conservative. Transaction Publishers, 2012.
From the Publisher: Hannah Arendt: Radical Conservative paints a broad picture of the personal traits and professional achievements in the work of an extremely complex iconographic figure in twentieth-century intellectual life. Writing about Hannah Arendt is… More

Stranger from Abroad: Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger, Friendship and Forgiveness

– Maier-Katkin, Daniel. Stranger from abroad: Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger, Friendship and Forgiveness. WW Norton & Company, 2010.
From the Publisher: “Shaking up the content and method by which generations of students had studied Western philosophy, Martin Heidegger sought to ennoble man’s existence in relation to death. Yet in a time of crisis, he sought personal advancement,… More

Feminist Interpretations of Hannah Arendt

– Honig, Bonnie, ed. Feminist Interpretations of Hannah Arendt. Penn State Press, 2010.
From the Publisher: “Consisting almost entirely of new essays specially prepared for this volume, Feminist Interpretations of Hannah Arendt illuminates the diversity of contemporary feminisms while also generating new and suggestive readings of Hannah… More

Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism, and the Social Sciences

– Baehr, Peter. Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism, and the Social Sciences. Stanford University Press, 2010.
From the Publisher: “This book examines the nature of totalitarianism as interpreted by some of the finest minds of the twentieth century. It focuses on Hannah Arendt’s claim that totalitarianism was an entirely unprecedented regime and that the… More

Hannah Arendt

– Swift, Simon. Hannah Arendt. Routledge, 2008.
From the Publisher: “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… More

Eichmann: The Simplicity of Evil

– Halkin, Hillel. Commentary (2005): 57-61.
Excerpt: The 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, writes the American scholar Alan Mintz, was “pivotal” in turning the Holocaust from “a topic barely spoken of in public discourse” into “one of the dominant subjects of our time.” These words appear in… More

Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World

– Young-Bruehl, Elisabeth. Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World. Yale University Press, 2004.
From the Publisher: “An in-depth biography of political philosopher Hannah Arendt traces her life from her childhood in Germany to her years in America, discussing the events and influences that shaped her work.”

The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt

– Villa, Dana, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
From the Publisher: “Hannah Arendt was one of the foremost political thinkers of the twentieth century, and her particular interests have made her one of the most frequently cited thinkers of our time. This volume examines the primary themes of her… More

The Banality of Evil: Hannah Arendt and ‘The Final Solution’

– Bergen, Bernard J. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000.
From the Publisher: “This highly original book is the first to explore the political and philosophical consequences of Hannah Arendt’s concept of ‘the banality of evil,’ a term she used to describe Adolph Eichmann, architect of the… More

Politics, Philosophy, Terror: Essays on the Thought of Hannah Arendt

– Villa, Dana. 1999. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Summary: Hannah Arendt’s rich and varied political thought is more influential today than ever before, due in part to the collapse of communism and the need for ideas that move beyond the old ideologies of the Cold War. As Dana Villa shows, however,… More

The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt by Seyla Benhabib

– Benhabib, Seyla. 1996.  London: Sage Publications.
Summary: Interpreting the work of one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt rereads Arendt’s political philosophy in light of newly gained insights into the historico-cultural background of… More