The Attack of the Blob : Hannah Arendt's Concept of the Social

"The European intellectual Hannah Arendt worried about the tendency of social structures to take on a life of their own and paralyze individual action. Pitkin . . . is determined to trace our problems to the actions of individuals. This book is thus a battle of wits. . . . [A] vivid sketch of the conflict between two basic outlooks."— Library Journal "[O]ne leaves this book feeling enriched and challenged. Pitkin prompts us to rethink our understanding of Arendt and to demythologize the pervasive sense of political helplessness Arendt herself sought so hard to articulate. . . . [A] cause for celebration."—Peter Baehr, Times Literary Supplement "[Arendt] is certainly among the most original and outstanding political theorists of the twentieth century. . . . It is difficult to imagine a hostile critic examining more effectively than Pitkin . . . Arendt's concept of the social, for hostility would inhibit the acquisition of the mastery of Arendt's texts that Pitkin displays at every turn."—Peter Berkowitz, New Republic One of the most brilliant political theorists of the twentieth century, Hannah Arendt intended her work to liberate and empower, to restore our capacity for concerted political action, to convince us that the power to improve our flawed arrangements is in our hands. At the same time, Arendt developed a metaphor of "the social" as an alien, all-consuming monster appearing as if from outer space to gobble up human freedom; she blamed it - not us - for our public paralysis and depoliticization. How can we understand her vision of the social that seems to conflict with her most important teaching? The Attack of the Blob is an imaginative and elegantly written study in which Hanna Pitkin seeks to resolve this paradox by tracing Arendt's notion of "the social" from her earliest writings to The Human Condition and beyond. Interpreting each work in its historical and personal context, Pitkin develops an answer that considers language and rhetoric, psychology and gender, authority, abstraction, and even the nature of political theory itself.

One of the most brilliant political theorists of our time, Hannah Ardent intended her work to liberate, to convince us that the power to improve our flawed arrangements is in our hands. At the same time, Ardent developed a metaphor of the social as an alien, appearing as if from outer space to gobble up human freedom; she blamed it—not us—for our public paralysis. In The Attack of the Blob, Hanna Pitkin seeks to resolve this seeming paradox by tracing Ardent's notion of the social throughout her writings. Doing this, Pitkin developes a resolution that considers everything from language to the nature of political theory itself.

New Republic - Peter Berkowitz

One could find much in it that deserves to be called Socratic. The main thing is to appreciate that such a spirit is...a compass for navigating the always treacherous and occasionally majestic waters of politics, and a vital support of our dignity as human beings.

Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 One. The Problem of the Blob 10 Two. Jewish Assimilation: The Pariah and the Parvenu 28 Three. Biographical Interlude: Philosophy, Love, Exile 44 Four. The Refugee as Parvenu and the Conscious Pariah 61 Five. The Birth of the Blob 78 Six. Writing 'The Human Condition' 107 Seven. Absent Authorities: Tocqueville and Marx 124 Eight. Abstraction, Authority, and Gender 154 Nine. The Social in 'The Human Condition' 186 Ten. Excising the Blob 212 Eleven. Why the Blob? 235 Twelve. Rethinking "the Social" 260 Notes 294 Bibliography 338 Index 348 One of the most brilliant political theorists of the century, Hannah Arendt developed a metaphor of "the social" as an alien space monster gobbling up human freedom. In THE ATTACK OF THE BLOB, political scientist Hanna Pitkin traces Arendt's notion of "the social" and raises disturbing and compelling questions about what freedom means today. Raising questions about what freedom means today, this study seeks to resolve the paradox of Hannah Arendt's ideas. It criticizes Arendt's flawed concept but insists on the urgent reality of the problem that concept was intended to address, thus continuing her enterprise.