Hannah Arendt: The Origins of Totalitarianism Expanded Edition (LOA #389)

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) was born in Hanover, Germany, and obtained her doctorate in philosophy from the University of Heidelberg. Forced to flee the Nazis in 1933, she became a social worker in Paris, and, once again escaping the Nazis in 1940, she emigrated to the United States, where she lived until her death, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1950. Her major philosophical works are The Origins of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition, Eichmann in Jerusalem, On Revolution, and the posthumously published The Life of the Mind, edited by her friend Mary McCarthy.

Jerome Kohn, editor, is the Trustee of the Hannah Arendt Blücher Literary Trust. He has written numerous essays on aspects of Arendt’s thought and has edited volumes of Arendt’s uncollected and unpublished writings including The Jewish Writings of Hannah Arendt and Thinking Without Bannisters. In 2019 Kohn was awarded the Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s Hannah Arendt Prize in Political Thinking.

Thomas Wild, editor, is Associate Professor and Chair of German Studies at Bard College. He is the author of Hannah Arendt: Leben, Werk, Wirkung, and is General Editor of Arendt’s Complete Works.