Mit der Biografie Rahel Varnhagens, einer der außerordentlichsten und bedeutendsten Frauen der ausgehenden Goethezeit, deren Berliner Salon alle Geistesgrößen der Zeit frequentierten, ist Hannah Arendt zugleich ein herausragendes Stück Geschichtsschreibung über das deutsche Judentum im 19. Jahrhundert und das Doppelgesicht der jüdischen Assimilation gelungen.

'How could such a book speak so powerfully to our present moment? The short answer is that we, too, live in dark times' Washington Post

Hannah Arendt's chilling analysis of the conditions that led to the Nazi and Soviet totalitarian regimes is a warning from history about the fragility of freedom, exploring how propaganda, scapegoats, terror and political isolation all aided the slide towards total domination.

'A non-fiction bookend to Nineteen Eighty-Four' The New York Times

'The political theorist who wrote about the Nazis and the 'banality of evil' has become a surprise bestseller' Guardian

'Brilliant and disturbing' Stephen Spender, New York Review of Books

The classic work on 'the banality of evil', and a journalistic masterpiece

Hannah Arendt's stunning and unnverving report on the trial of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a series of articles in the New Yorker in 1963. This edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt's postscript directly addressing the controversy that arose over her account. A major journalistic triumph by an intellectual of singular influence, this classic portrayal of the banality of evil is as shocking as it is informative - an unflinching look at one of the most unsettling issues of the twentieth century.

'Deals with the greatest problem of our time ... the problem of the human being within a modern totalitarian system' Bruno Bettelheim

The political theorist and author of The Origins of Totalitarianism offers an “incisive, deeply probing” essay on violence and political power (The Nation).

Addressing the escalation of global warfare witnessed throughout the 1960s, Hannah Arendt points out that the glorification of violence is not restricted to a small minority of militants and extremists. The public revulsion for violence that followed World War II has dissipated, as have the nonviolent philosophies of the early civil rights movement.

Contemplating how this reversal came about and where it might lead, Arendt examines the relationship between war and politics, violence and power. She questions the nature of violent behavior and identifies the causes of its many manifestations. Ultimately, she argues against Mao Tse-tung’s dictum that “power grow out of the barrel of a gun,” proposing instead that “power and violence are opposite; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent.”

“Written with clarity and grace, it provides an ideal framework for understanding the turbulence of our times.”—The Nation

Le texte intégral de l'œuvre philosophique et un dossier pédagogique complet !

Le produit d'une pensée active, ancrée dans l'histoire de l'humanité, visant à améliorer la vie humaine.


Contexte

Née en 1906, Hannah Arendt a connu les deux guerres mondiales ; sa pensée a été marquée par ces crises morales et politiques. Elle a alors conçu une vision de la philosophie comme profondément ancrée dans l'histoire, et du philosophe comme personne capable d'améliorer la vie active. Arendt est ainsi, de par ses œuvres, philosophe de la politique et de la civilisation.


L'œuvre

Arendt met en avant la vita activa, en opposition à la vita contemplativa. Cette " vie active " est composées de trois activités ; le travail est la plus importante, car il assure la survie de l'espèce humaine. L'œuvre, elle, est nécessaire pour créer un environnement humain. Quant à l'action, elle est le propre de tout individu. L'activité est donc au cœur de la Condition de l'homme moderne.


Les concepts clés

L'autorité

La condition humaine

L'histoire

Le travail

La liberté...




La collection Intégrales de philo, une approche complète et approfondie d'une œuvre essentielle

Une œuvre commentée par des spécialistes

Des dossiers autour de l'œuvre

Plus de trente titres

4 périodes : Antiquité, Moyen Âge et Renaissance (Ve – XVIe s.), période moderne (XVIIe – XIXe s.), période contemporaine (XXe s.)