HANNAH ARENDT 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. Simon Swift is Lecturer in Critical and Cultural Theory in the School of English at the University of Leeds. His research interests include Kant, Romanticism, aesthetics, the philosophy of the Enlightenment and Critical Theory. He is the author of Romanticism, Literature and Philosophy: Expressive Rationality in Rousseau, Kant, Wollstonecraft and Contemporary Theory (2006). ROUTLEDGE CRITICAL THINKERS Series Editor: Robert Eaglestone, Royal Holloway, University of London Routledge Critical Thinkers is a series of accessible introductions to key figures in contemporary critical thought. With a unique focus on historical and intellectual contexts, the volumes in this series examine important theorists’: • significance • motivation • key ideas and their sources • impact on other thinkers. Concluding with extensively annotated guides to further reading, Routledge Critical Thinkers are the student’s passport to today’s most exciting critical thought. Already available: Theodor Adorno by Ross Wilson Louis Althusser by Luke Ferretter Roland Barthes by Graham Allen Jean Baudrillard by Richard J. Lane Simone de Beauvoir by Ursula Tidd Homi K. Bhabha by David Huddart Maurice Blanchot by Ullrich Haase and William Large Judith Butler by Sara Salih Gilles Deleuze by Claire Colebrook Jacques Derrida by Nicholas Royle Michel Foucault by Sara Mills Sigmund Freud by Pamela Thurschwell Antonio Gramsci by Steve Jones Stephen Greenblatt by Mark Robson Stuart Hall by James Procter Martin Heidegger by Timothy Clark Fredric Jameson by Adam Roberts Jean-François Lyotard by Simon Malpas Jacques Lacan by Sean Homer Julia Kristeva by Noëlle McAfee Paul de Man by Martin McQuillan Friedrich Nietzsche by Lee Spinks Paul Ricoeur by Karl Simms Edward Said by Bill Ashcroft and Pal Ahluwalia Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak by Stephen Morton Paul Virilio by Ian James Slavoj Žižek by Tony Myers American Theorists of the Novel: Henry James, Lionel Trilling & Wayne C. Booth by Peter Rawlings Theorists of the Modernist Novel: James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson & Virginia Woolf by Deborah Parsons Theorists of Modernist Poetry: T.S. Eliot, T. E. Hulme & Ezra Pound by Rebecca Beasley Feminist Film Theorists: Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, Teresade Lauretis and Barbara Creed by Shohini Chaudhuri Cyberculture Theorists: Manuel Castells and Donna Haraway by David Bell For further details on this series, see www.routledge.com/literature/series.asp HANNAH ARENDT Simon Swift LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2009 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2009 Simon Swift All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Swift, Simon. Hannah Arendt / Simon Swift. p. cm. – (Routledge critical thinkers) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1906-1975. I. Title. II. Series. B945.A694S95 2008 320.5092–dc22 2008015953 ISBN 0-203-88967-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 10: 0-415-42585-9 (Print Edition) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-42585-8 (hbk) ISBN 10: 0-415-42586-7 (Print Edition) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-42586-5 (pbk) ISBN 10: 0-203-88967-3 (Print Edition) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-88967-1 (Print Edition) (ebk) FOR LENI CONTENTS Series editor’s preface x Acknowledgements xiii Abbreviations xiv WHY ARENDT? 1 1 Biography, theory and politics 8 2 Thinking and society 19 3 Acting 32 4 Labour, work and modernism 44 5 Judging: From Kant to Eichmann 55 6 Anti-Semitism 66 7 Racism, empire and nation 77 8 Totalitarianism 87 Coda: Evil 98 AFTER ARENDT 101 FURTHER READING 112 Works cited 117 Index 120