Author Reading | Why Read Hannah Arendt Now: A Philosopher's Importance

Professor of Philosophy Richard J. Bernstein, will present his new book on Hannah Arendt, followed by a screening of the documentary film Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt.

Johanna "Hannah" Cohn Arendt (/ˈɛərənt, ˈɑːr-/; German: [ˈaːʁənt];[11] Hannah Arendt Bluecher; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was an American philosopher and political theorist. Her many books and articles on topics ranging from totalitarianism to epistemology have had a lasting influence on political theory. Arendt is widely considered one of the most important political philosophers of the twentieth century.

Arendt was born in Hanover, Germany and brought up in a secular merchant Jewish culture by parents who were politically progressive, being supporters of the Social Democrats. Her father died when she was seven, so she was raised by her mother and grandfather. She studied at the University of Marburg under Martin Heidegger, widely acknowledged to be one of the most original and important philosophers of the 20C, who had a lasting influence on her thinking. She obtained her doctorate in philosophy in 1929 at the University of Heidelberg with Karl Jaspers, German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who was one of the most important Existentialists in Germany and had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy.

In 1933, while researching antisemitic propaganda for the Zionist Federation of Germany, Arendt was imprisoned by the Gestapo. On release, she fled Germany, living in Czechoslovakia and Switzerland before settling in Paris. There she worked for Youth Aliyah, assisting young Jews to emigrate to Palestine. She escaped Europe and made her way to the United States in 1941 via Portugal.

She settled in New York, which remained her principal residence for the rest of her life. She became a writer and editor and worked for the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, becoming an American citizen in 1950. With the publication of The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951, her reputation as a thinker and writer was established and a series of seminal works followed.