Customer Reviews

The Portable Hannah Arendt (Penguin Classics)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century. She was equally at home in philosophy, political theory, and history, and blended all three disciplines in her pursuit of integrity in political thought and action. This fine book is perhaps the single best place to begin to get to know her thought and work. The introduction is first-rate -- clear, accessible, yet intellectually rigorous, respectful of Arendt while critical. The choices of readings -- both complete and self-contained essays and extracts from larger books such as ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM, EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM, and ON REVOLUTION -- are excellent. The annotations don't get in the way and are of much aid to the reader. The bibliography of works by and about Arendt is excellent. All in all, this is a superb addition to the VIKING PORTABLE series.

While this volume intends to introduce Arendt to new readers, those familiar with her writings will find some choice morsels scattered among the excerpts from her better-known works. Of these, I particularly enjoyed her analysis of enforced segregation, her startling letter to Gershom Scholem (in which she responds to his criticisms of EICHMAN IN JERUSALEM), and her conception of a wartime (World War Two, that is) Jewish army. After reading these and other pieces, you will, I think, understand why so many hail her as a truly monumental figure. Simply put, this thinker is impossible to pigeonhole: a scholar who was at home in journalism, a critic of totalitarianism who was no leftist, a supporter of Israel who did not hesitate to address its flaws, a political philosopher who balked at that label.

i like most of the penguin classics. this book, which includes a sample of her letters, books, articles, and speeches, is very thoughtful. the introduction was, as the previous reviewer suggested, scholarly, respectful yet, at times, engaging. she is, indeed, a political - historian - philosopher, regardless of her own denials. astute observations at times, among the very finest i've ever read. but, then, there are other times in which she just seems to gloss over the premise, analyze the process, and reach fallacious conclusions because, perhaps, the premise never even occurred to her? i don't know. it's not consistent with the rest of her brilliant work. she seemed to start out in germany very strong willed but her tenacity seemed to peter out over the decades. maybe we're all like that, huh? i've never found any of her writings for which i would proffer anyting other than an A+. this work comes highly recommended for anyone with an interest in philosophy, political theory, history, jewish studies.

Hannah Arendt is a political philosopher whose work is still highly relevant and inspirational. This selection of her writings, essays and excerpts from her books aims to give the scope of her ideas to the full. That includes her work on the human mind, the role of imagination, and the human condition. But there is also a full coverage of her political writings that relate to the history of the Jewish people in the 20th century. These analyses rank among the very best that have been written on the subject in history. The reader can follow the emergence of such widely-known concepts like "the banality of evil", concepts that Arendt examines with clarity and intelligence.

Great Read.She makes some great points but fails to see the bigger picture sometimes. Hannah Arendt writes for a cause but I think she sometimes fails to recognize that others might have suffered too.

Please read all the other reviews because I am not going to get into details as they have. Talk about a book for it's time or a time for this book. Arendt is brilliant. I wish I could have been privileged to have spent 14 minutes and 37 seconds with her. It would have been a most enlightening experience. Between the way she writes and the way she thinks, this is must reading for anyone who is having a difficult time trying understand what is going on NOW! It would be fascinating to be able to bring her back. Even more fascinating about her was the fact that here was a Jewess, writing about the Nazis and Totalitarianism, who had a clandestine affair with Heidegger! This is one complex lady with a mind and writing ability that is well worth your investment in time reading. In a word... WOW!