Hannah Arendt's 1970 essay On Violence has stood the test of time
Hannah Arendt studied philosophy at the universities of Marburg and Heidelberg, but thought of herself as a political theorist rather than a philosopher. She was also a gifted phrase maker and is perhaps best remembered today for one she coined when writing about the 1961 trial in Jerusalem of Adolf Eichmann: "The banality of evil".
by Hannah Arendt
Harcourt, Brace & World
Hannah Arendt studied philosophy at the universities of Marburg and Heidelberg, but thought of herself as a political theorist rather than a philosopher. She was also a gifted phrase maker and is perhaps best remembered today for one she coined when writing about the 1961 trial in Jerusalem of Adolf Eichmann: "The banality of evil".
Arendt, who died in 1975, published several highly readable books of political thought, beginning with 1951's and including , , and .
In this extended essay, she explored the relationship between violence and power at a time when violent action was being volubly advocated by extremists on both left and right.
One of the objectives of the book was to discredit the positions of influential thinkers of the era such as Jean-Paul Sartre, who not only defended violent action but sought to glorify it.
"Sartre is unaware of his basic disagreement with Marx on the question of violence, especially when he states that 'irrepressible violence … is man recreating himself', that it is 'mad fury' through which 'the wretched of the earth' can 'become men'."
