Why Read Hannah Arendt Now?

Hannah Arendt Revisited

The philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906 -- 1975) was born in Germany where she studied and, famously, had an affair with Martin Heidegger. With WW II, Arendt became stateless for 14 years. In 1941, Arendt escaped Europe and arrived in the United States. In 1951 she became an American citizen and lived in the United States for the rest of her life. Arendt is best-known for her controversial 1965 book "Eichmann in Jerusalem". This book has tended to overshadow the rest of Arendt's extensive writing.

In his book, "Why Read Hannah Arendt Now" (2018), philosopher Richard Bernstein makes a compelling case for Arendt's importance. The Vera List Professor of Philosophy at the New School of Social Research, Bernstein has written extensively on pragmatism. His short accessible study of Arendt argues that "we are living in dark times that are engulfing the entire world". Arendt found herself in similar times living through Nazism and great personal danger. For Bernstein, Arendt shows that "even in the darkest of times we can hope to find some illumination -- illumination that comes not so much from theories and concepts but from the lives and works of individuals". He finds Arendt worth reading because "she is an astute critic of dangerous tendencies in modern life and she illuminates the potentialities for restoring the dignity of politics". (pp 2-3)

Bernstein's book consists of short inter-related chapters that discuss themes in Arendt's work as opposed to detailed study of individual books or biography. (There is no reference to Arendt's philosophical or personal relationship to Heidegger.) Some of the themes involve specific political questions that Arendt discussed while others are broader in scope. Bernstein begins with a discussion of Arendt's life as a stateless person and how this WW II experience became pervasive to her thought. Throughout her career, Arendt found the nature of freedom and of human fulfillment in being part of a community rather that in the stateless life of a refugee. Broadly, the source of individuality and of rights lies in community rather than separate from it. Further, Bernstein points out, since the American and French Revolutions, Arendt regarded rights as a purely human product. The turn to "inalienable" rights "meant nothing more or less than that from then on Man and not God's command or the customs of history , should be the source of Law". (Bernstein, p. 21)

Even before her book on Eichmann, Arendt took controversial positions on public events. Bernstein offers nuanced discussions of her views on the establishment of the State of Israel and of her reservations about the American civil rights movement, as evidenced in her article about the integration of Little Rock High School and in other works. Bernstein discusses well Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem" and the controversy it engendered. He finds much to criticize in the book. Among other things, Arendt seriously misjudged Eichmann by finding that his role in the Holocaust illustrated the "banality of evil". Still, Bernstein finds that Arendt's study of Eichmann has, in its broader sense and it her concept of evil's frequent banality, much that remains valuable.

Bernstein uses the book about the Eichmann trial as a pivot to explore the underlying, broader themes of Arendt's thought. The concluding four sections of the book should be read as a unit. Arendt discussed the totalitarian tendencies of the politics of her day with a focus on the culture of lying. Bernstein argues for the increasing relevance of her discussion for contemporary life. While he comments on the Trump presidency, for the most part Bernstein allows Arendt to speak for herself, frequently through quotation. Arendt also spoke of recovering the dignity of politics through a sense of individual responsibility and informed, intimate discussion and action with other people holding a divergence of views. Her sense of individual responsibility in community does, as Bernstein argues, make Arendt important and worth reading. Arendt discussed several moments in history in which she found that politics worked. Among these moments were the American Revolution and the subsequent development of constitutionalism at the State and National levels. Bernstein gives substantial attention to Arendt's writings on the American Revolution.

Bernstein ultimately finds Arendt's work important because of the manner in which she combined individual responsibility with political freedom. Bernstein concludes:

"The task she set herself is now out task -- to bear the burden of our century and neither to deny its existence nor submit meekly to its weight. Arendt should be read today because she was so perceptive in comprehending the dangers that still confront us and warned us about becoming indifferent or cynical. She urged us to take responsibility for our political destinies. She taught us that we have the capacity to act in concert, to initiate, to begin, to strive to make freedom a worldly reality." (pp. 120 --121)

I learned a great deal from Bernstein's short book and was inspired to revisit or revisit Arendt's own writings. The publisher, Polity Press, kindly sent me a copy of the book to review.

Robin Friedman