Hannah Arendt : a reinterpretation of her political thought

Hannah Arendt is one of the most original and controversial political thinkers of the twentieth century. Margaret Canovan argues that much of the published work on Arendt has been flawed by serious misunderstandings, arising from a failure to see her work in its proper context. This reinterpretation will surely strengthen Arendt's status as one of the most significant political thinkers of the twentieth century. Hannah Arendt is one of the most original and controversial thinkers of the twentieth century, and her work has attracted a great deal of criticism and comment. In this major reevaluation, Margaret Canovan makes extensive use of unpublished material to trace the themes of Arendt's mature thought back to their origins in her concern with Nazism and Stalinism, and shows that Arendt has been widely misunderstood because her writings have not been adequately contextualised. Dr. Canovan sheds new and often surprising light on many of the most controversial areas of Arendt's work, including her theory of totalitarianism itself, the links between The Origins of Totalitarianism and The Human Condition, her theory of action, her puzzling and disturbing comments on 'the social question' and on morality in politics, and many other aspects of her work. Arendt's thought turns out to be more complex and more deeply preoccupied with totalitarianism than is generally recognised, but also, paradoxically, to have greater contemporary relevance than might be expected. Dr. Canovan's reinterpretation strengthens Arendt's claim to be regarded as one of the most significant political thinkers of the twentieth century

Margaret Canovan argues in this book that much of the published work on Arendt has been flawed by serious misunderstandings, arising from a failure to see her work in its proper context. The author shows how such misunderstanding was possible, and offers a fundamental reinterpretation, drawing on Arendt's unpublished as well as her published work, which sheds new light on most areas of her thought.

This book is a reinterpretation of the political thought of Hannah Arendt, which strengthens Arendt's claim to be regarded as one of the most significant political thinkers of the twentieth century. When it was fist published in 1951, The Origins of Totalitarianism established Arendt as a notable student of the political crisis of her time.