Why Hannah Arendt left philosophy behind to face the world

‘Her words are bubble-wrapped in such brilliant thoughts.’ Revisiting Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt was one of the major political thinkers of the 20th century, dedicating most of her life to looking at the causes of antisemitism and the conditions that created totalitarian forms of rule during the interwar years.

Why Hannah Arendt left philosophy behind to face the world

In 1964, the German journalist Günter Gaus opened his interview with Hannah Arendt by asking about the experience of being a woman philosopher in a profession still largely shaped by men. But Arendt threw him off course straightaway. She objected, calmly but firmly, that she wasn’t a philosopher at all — that she didn’t belong to the circle of philosophers.  Gaus, visibly baffled, kept pressing. After all, Arendt was steeped in the German philos…