Hannah Arendt, 1906–1975

This essay provides an overview of the life and theoretical concerns of Hannah Arendt. It traces the way her experience as a German Jew in the 1930s informed her analysis of totalitarianism in The Origins of Totalitarianism and her idea of the "banality of evil" in Eichmann in Jerusalem. The essay takes issue with those of Arendtʹs critics who detect a lack of "love of the Jewish people" in her writing. It also traces the way Arendtʹs encounter with totalitarian evil led to a deeper questioning of the antidemocratic impulses in the Western tradition of political thought—a questioning that finds its fullest articulation in The Human Condition and On Revolution. Throughout, my concern is to highlight Arendtʹs contribution to thinking "the political" in a way friendly to the basic phenomenon of human plurality. I also highlight her recovery and extension of the main themes of the civic republican tradition.