Hannah Arendt is one of the most renowned political thinkers of the twentieth century and her work has never been more relevant than it is today. Born in Germany in 1906, Arendt published her first book at the age of 23, before turning away from the world of academic philosophy to reckon with the rise of the Third Reich. After the War, Arendt became one of the most prominent and controversial public intellectuals of her time, publishing influential works such as The Origins of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition and Eichmann in Jerusalem. Samantha Rose Hill weaves together new biographical detail, archival documents, poems and correspondence to reveal a woman whose passion for the life of the mind was nourished by her love of the world.
Hannah Arendt' by Samantha Rose Hill could hardly appear more opportunely. Arendt's way of thinking, though quick to the point of being difficult to follow, appeals to an increasing number of men and women who question the meaning of their lives in the world we share. Arendt's own writings and the books and essays analyzing them may seem exhaustive, yet Hill's work does something new: Without simplifying Arendt's thinking, she opens it to contemporary readers who, in the darkness of our times, will find a friend, a woman, who lived through the darkest of all times. It becomes clear to the reader that among Arendt's gifts to the world was the welcome she gave to those distinct from herself as passengers aboard her bullet-trains of thought.', Jerome Kohn, Trustee, Hannah Arendt Bluecher Literary Trust