Synopses & Reviews
Upon publication of her and#147;field manual,and#8221;
The Origins of Totalitarianism,
in 1951, Hannah Arendt immediately gained recognition as a major political analyst. Over the next twenty-five years, she wrote ten more books and developed a set of ideas that profoundly influenced the way America and Europe addressed the central questions and dilemmas of World War II. In this concise book, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl introduces her mentorand#8217;s work to twenty-first-century readers. Arendtand#8217;s ideas, as much today as in her own lifetime, illuminate those issues that perplex us, such as totalitarianism, terrorism, globalization, war, and and#147;radical evil.and#8221;
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, who was Arendtand#8217;s doctoral student in the early 1970s and who wrote the definitive biography of her mentor in 1982, now revisits Arendtand#8217;s major works and seminal ideas. Young-Bruehl considers what Arendtand#8217;s analysis of the totalitarianism of Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union can teach us about our own times, and how her revolutionary understanding of political action is connected to forgiveness and making promises for the future. The author also discusses The Life of the Mind, Arendtand#8217;s unfinished meditation on how to think about thinking. Placed in the context of todayand#8217;s political landscape, Arendtand#8217;s ideas take on a new immediacy and importance. They require our attention, Young-Bruehl shows, and continue to bring fresh truths to light.
Review
"What would she be thinking, what would she be saying, right now, about all this?andnbsp;Thus do many of us, long bereft, find ourselves repeatedly pondering regarding the late, incomparably lucid and passionate Hannah Arendt. How unexpectedly lucky for us therefore becomes this book, this gift from Ms. Arendt's passionately lucid biographer: a text, both clear and urgent, that comes astonishingly close to providing an answer.andnbsp;Grounding her analysis in a vividly concise summation of the entire arc of her subject's life-thought, it's almost as if Young-Bruehl were channeling Arendt, right now, today, when we really need her."and#8212;Lawrence Weschler, Director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU and author of Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences
Synopsis
Upon publication of her field manual, The Origins of Totalitarianism, in 1951, Hannah Arendt immediately gained recognition as a major political analyst. Over the next twenty-five years, she wrote ten more books and developed a set of ideas that profoundly influenced the way America and Europe addressed the central questions and dilemmas of World War II. In this concise book, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl introduces her mentor's work to twenty-first-century readers. Arendt's ideas, as much today as in her own lifetime, illuminate those issues that perplex us, such as totalitarianism, terrorism, globalization, war, and radical evil.
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, who was Arendt's doctoral student in the early 1970s and who wrote the definitive biography of her mentor in 1982, now revisits Arendt's major works and seminal ideas. Young-Bruehl considers what Arendt's analysis of the totalitarianism of Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union can teach us about our own times, and how her revolutionary understanding of political action is connected to forgiveness and making promises for the future. The author also discusses The Life of the Mind, Arendt's unfinished meditation on how to think about thinking. Placed in the context of today's political landscape, Arendt's ideas take on a new immediacy and importance. They require our attention, Young-Bruehl shows, and continue to bring fresh truths to light.
About the Author
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl is a faculty member at the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and a practicing psychoanalyst. She received her Ph.D. in philosophy under Hannah Arendtand#8217;s supervision at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research. She lives in New York City.