Between Past and Future (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) [Paperback]

Hannah Arendt (Author)

Book Description

Series: Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin | Publication Date: March 1, 1993

Arendt's penetrating observations of the modern world, based on a profound knowledge of the past, constitute a major contribution to political philosophy. In this book she describes the perplexing crises which modern society faces as a result of the loss of meaning of the traditional key words of politics: justice, reason, responsibility, virtue, and glory.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hannnah Arendt (1906-1975) was for many years University Professor of Political Philosophy in the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research and a Visiting Fellow of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. She is also the author of Eichmann in Jerusalem, On Revolution, and Between Past and Future (all available from Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics).

Jerome Kohn is the director of the Hannah Arendt Center at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (March 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140186506
• ISBN-13: 978-0140186505
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,167,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) taught political science and philosophy at The New School for Social Research in New York and the University of Chicago. Widely acclaimed as a brilliant and original thinker, her works include Eichmann in Jerusalem and The Human Condition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More vitamins than a semester full of the "usual texts", May 29, 2001

By 

Saul Boulschett "Anyway" (Dry land) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Past and Future (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)

Notice inside the parenthesis next to the title it says (20th century classics). That's because this work belongs to that rank. I first read this book back when I was in grad school, and have used it as a reference ever since. If a 'classic' -- if we may dare use such a term still -- is something akin to a great poem as Ezra Pound defined it, "News that stays new", then this work is a classic. Arendt must have been a great teacher as well as a thinker. These essays read like lectures: Lectures given by a caring professor who actually gives a damn about getting through to her audience. Yes, some Greek and Latin here and there, but with Arendt as your guide you cannot get lost if you pay attention. The subtitle of the book is Eight Exercises in Political Thought, and Arendt, in her grand style, deals with the big topics -- Freedom, Authority, Power, Tradition, etc -- that ground everything else in civic life. The sheer pleasure to be had in encountering the density of her scholarship is found not only in her crystal clear prose, but also in her mastery of the foundational concepts and experience, Roman and Greek, that shape, willy nilly, the warpature within the space of our civic and political discourse even today. However, in her presentation of the trajectory of tradition, she also shows exactly where and how the displacement of tradition occurred. In the opening lines of her essay 'What is Authority?', she asks whether we ought not instead be asking 'What WAS Authority?', making clear from the get go that the notion of Authority has undergone an irreversible transformation since the Roman conception. And then she goes on to explain how that change occurred and in what way, with what chain of consequences. This book is noteworthy not only for its content and inimitable delivery, but also as a model of intellectual "exercise". The calmness, the steady architectural build-up of the argument, attention to philological detail when it's called for, all make up Arendt's generous style of writing and thinking. But that generosity is especially evident in this collection of essays. This is one of those rare books that, if read well, will actually make you more thoughtful. And smarter. Besides, you get to pick up some Greek and Latin for free.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just as was expected from Arendt--sheer genius!, January 9, 2001

By 

Billy Dean Joines "bdj81" (Incheon, South Korea) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Between Past and Future (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)

The last reviewer is correct in the sense that Arendt is an incredibly intelligent writer, it is wrong to judge the book on other works of Arendt. I believe this book demonstrates and explains the close, yet, strangely obscure ties between past occurences and ideas and those of the present. Arendt really puts the true meaning of historical study into place when she places it in all three tenses: past, present, and future. For those of you unacquainted with the writings of Hannah Arendt, I will gladly tell you that no one I have ever read has the observation and mental-leaps that Arendt gave us through her writings. The back of the book says something to the effect that Arendt exposed what is usually passed off as genius as a tired process still running its course. As cliche as remarks on the back of books go, this one so happens to describe her talent perfectly. Arendt shows us that there is very little that is original. Many things really depend on past observations and actions. She also shows us that little has changed since ancient times, in some of our most fundamental system of thinking. I am disappointed that the previous Arendt-reader was not impressed with the book. I have owned it for about five months now, and I still find myself picking back through the explanations and exercises that Arendt gave us. This really is a must have for anyone who reads Hannah Arendt, or anyone who finds themselves between past and future.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of her best, December 6, 2004

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Between Past and Future (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)

This along with ' Men in Dark Times' and ' The Human Condition' is my favorite Arendt work. Her analysis of fundamental concepts such as Authority, Truth, Freedom, Action are fundamental in that they go to the root morning of the term and trace the concepts transformations in reality. Her narratives are generally narratives of decline and loss, of concepts and experiences that somehow lose their meanings in the transformation of time. And this while she is always searching for some kind of redefinition of fundamental political activity and reality that will bring a new dignity to the human condition. Her writing is profound, and whether one agrees with her or not her analyses always ' educate' and make ' the life of the mind ' seem especially meaningful.
This is one of the best works of one of the great political thinkers of the modern world.