The Portable Hannah Arendt (Viking Portable Library) (Paperback)

by Hannah Arendt (Author), Peter Baehr (Contributor, Editor) "On October 28, 1964, the following conversation between Hannah Arendt and Gunter Gaus..." (more)
Key Phrases: communistic fiction, elementary republics, laboring process, French Revolution, Rosa Luxemburg, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Peter Baehr's anthology is a gem made up of 33 selections supplemented by his highly competent introduction, a chronology covering the major events in Hannah Arendt's life, and a basic bibliography. Arendt's erudition and incisive brilliance are well represented throughout. Passages include lengthy excerpts from her major books (The Origins of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition, On Revolution, and Eichmann in Jerusalem), shorter excerpts from Rahel Varnhagen and The Life of the Mind, eight essays (four from Between Past and Future, one from Men in Dark Times, and two not previously available in book form), a University of Chicago lecture, her famous television interview with Guenter Gaus, four letters (two to Karl Jaspers, others to Mary McCarthy and Gershom Scholem), and a brief journal entry (on Heidegger "the fox"). Ever sensitive to the limitations of anthologies, particularly for the work of thinkers like Arendt, Baehr has managed to effectively convey the feel of Arendt's conscientious yet combative thinking through his selections and arrangements.

Arendt burst upon the world literary stage in 1951 with The Origins of Totalitarianism and a Saturday Review cover photo. She understood totalitarianism as an unprecedented phenomenon, identifying several elements that fused into it and analyzing totalitarian movements and rule. The success of Origins led to prestigious lectureships and 25 years of fiercely independent writing and teaching. She proved knowledgeable about philosophy as well as history and politics, fluent not only in English and German (her beloved "mother tongue") but also in French, Greek, and Latin. This precocious German Jewess had devoted her college years to studying philosophy, theology, and Greek (with Heidegger, Jaspers, Husserl, and Bultmann!), but the Nazi rise to power compelled Arendt to focus on politics, especially the Jewish question. From the '50s until her death in 1975, Arendt developed and publicly defended controversial views, including her report on the Eichmann trial and her coinage "the banality of evil"; her opposition to integrationist busing and to affirmative action hiring in universities; and her version of (classical) republicanism, rooted in her radical understandings of human action and the dignity of politics. All these views and more find expression in this collection. Of late, Arendt's fame has been rekindled by revelations of her love affair with Heidegger. Now, as we approach her birth centenary (2006), this Portable provides newcomers and faithful admirers alike a marvelous package of Arendt's writings. --Richard Kenney

Product Description
A comprehensive collection of writings by one of the twentieth-century's most important philosophers and political thinkers.

Amid the confusion of the twentieth century, Hannah Arendt was perhaps our most searching and sane thinker. Born into a Jewish family in Germany at the beginning of the century, Arendt studied under Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers. She later fled the Nazi terror and established herself as a preeminent political and philosophical writer at New York's famed New School for Social Research.

The Portable Hannah Arendt, the first comprehensive volume of her writings, includes generous selections from her masterworks: The Origins of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition, and her controversial Eichmann in Jerusalem. Also featured is a selection of Arendt's letters to other formative thinkers of the century, including Jaspers and Mary McCarthy. This Viking Portable volume powerfully displays the ideas of this formidable post-modern intellectual.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 31, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140269746
• ISBN-13: 978-0140269741
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,045,473 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb introduction to a great mind., October 8, 2000

By	R. B. Bernstein "R. B. Bernstein, Adjunct Pro... (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars great starting place to read one of the most brilliant thinkers of the 20th century!, June 26, 2009

By	Robert W. Smith "Robert Smith, Ph.D." (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Portable Hannah Arendt (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

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.

4.0 out of 5 stars Learned but obfuscating, June 15, 2009

By	not a natural (huntington, west virginia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Portable Hannah Arendt (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I'm sure that Hannah Arendt was a brilliant and accomplished scholar. However, I got the distinct impression from reading her books that she couldn't decide if she was a political theorist or a literary scholar.

I certainly agree that, especially today, these scholarly domains are not mutually exclusive, and that knowledge of one may provide insights pertinent to the other. Arendt, however, seemed overly fond of using literary metaphors which ostensibly had scholarly import for political theory that I could not see.

Beyond that, as with so many political theorists and literary luminaries of her day, she seems not to have understood or been interested in Marx. Surely a scholar of her stature would know that there is infinitely more to Marx than "from each according to his ability; to each according to his need." I think Arendt, as with so many politically sophisticated people of her era, may have dismissed Marx as a minor post-Ricardian whose work could be summed up in a few upotian aphorisms.

Finally, and I hope not unfairly, Arendt struck me as someone who was too quick, when faced with opposing views, to respond with a patronizing smile and a too-facile "you just didn't understand me."

A great thinker, writer, and scholar, but with, I think, some serious limitations.