Raoul Wallenberg Stops Genocide Oct 29, 2008
Eichmann was tried for war crimes in Israel in 1961-62 and executed for what historian Hannah Arendt called, the banality of evil in her 1962 book, Eichmann in Jerusalem. Final Days in Budapest. (Suite101.com)
Publishing giant Robert Giroux dies Sep 9, 2008
Giroux also edited Susan Sontag, Robert Lowell and Hannah Arendt. Giroux was an author himself, writing The Book Known as Q: A Consideration of Shakespeare's Sonnets. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Robert Giroux, giant of publishing, dies Sep 6, 2008
Among the debut novels he worked on were Malamud's "The Natural," Jack Kerouac's "The Town and the City" and O'Connor's "Wise Blood." Giroux also edited Susan Sontag, Robert Lowell and Hannah Arendt. But Giroux did miss out at least twice. (MSNBC -- News)
Poles apart: cold war in a bitter battle of ideas Jul 19, 2008
There are admiring essays on Koestler, Camus and Hannah Arendt and a devastating critique of Louis Althusser. The only false note, in my opinion, is a piece on the historian Eric Hobsbawm, whose indulgent attitude towards the Soviet Union deserves a more decisive condemnation than Judt is able, or willing, to provide. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Cheney linked to torture tactics Jun 26, 2008
By the time Hannah Arendt (Rena Cherry Brown) pops into "This Storm Is What We Call Progress," dispensing chicken soup and peppering her dizzying monologue with allusions to Martin Heidegger and the dark allure of the Nazis, you are completely at sea and cannot help but wonder, "What does this have to do with mysticism and the Jewish question again?". A man who killed five people and himself in a rampage at a western Kentucky plastics plant called his girlfriend before the rampage to warn her... (Yahoo News -- Bush Administration)
Why Iraq won't be South Korea Jun 20, 2008
Echoing astute past observations by Hannah Arendt, US nationalism and imperialism was coupled with racism (towards Arabs and Islam). And the invasion of Iraq was finally conceptualized as a "demonstration project" - the push to create in the Mesopotamian sands a US-style, wealthy consumer society, a demilitarized client state under benign US protection. (Asia Times Online)
The Chapmans journey to Hell and back Jun 1, 2008
As Hannah Arendt pointed out so astutely, evil is banal. It s everywhere. (Times Online)
A Protestant town's 'conspiracy of good' in Vichy France May 16, 2008
If German political philosopher Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil" was a main insight into Auschwitz, historians say, the rescuers illustrate the possibility of decency and natural goodness in dark times. In a world where man's inhumanity to man has hardly been stamped out, it's argued, such stories are even more relevant. (Yahoo News -- Top Stories)
Appraising The 20th Century Apr 23, 2008
This is seen, first through the eyes of many of the greatest, and at time all but forgotten intellectual figures of that century--from Albert Camus through Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt and Arthur Koestler to Leszek Kolakowski. Many of these figures are all but forgotten--as are the ideologies they chronicle, particularly Marxism. (Forbes -- Markets)
Tony Judt's "Reappraisals": Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century Apr 18, 2008
s Sperber, tenderly about Primo Levi, enthusiastically about Hannah Arendt. Today in Culture. (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
Right thinking must lead to action on Burma Mar 28, 2008
It was Hannah Arendt who wrote that "Under conditions of tyranny, it is easier to act than to think." While none would accuse Burma's Saffron Revolution of being unthinking, the sense of those words hold true. There is a time when thoughts must give way to action. (Globe and Mail)
Brrreeaatthe! Mar 2, 2008
Chiming in on the topic was American author and philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906-1975): "Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom." One's relative happiness, or lack thereof, is predicated on being able and willing to forgive for perceived offenses. American comedian Henny Youngman (1906-1998) reportedly wrote: "I once wanted to become an atheist but I gave up because they have no holidays." The gentleman's breathing capacity certainly made certain of God's presence. (Orangeburg Times and Democrat, SC)
Western Civilization and Other Fairy Tales Feb 6, 2008
Political theorist Hannah Arendt once said that, every generation, Western civilization is invaded by barbarians - we call them "children." Today's babies aren't meaningfully different from those born 1,000 or 5,000 years ago ... Political theorist Hannah Arendt once said that, every generation, Western civilization is invaded by barbarians - we call them "children." Today's babies aren't meaningfully different from those born 1,000 or 5,000 years ago. (Townhall.com)
Committee on Social Thought is renamed for founder, supporter Jan 25, 2008
Some of the country s leading intellectuals have been associated with the committee, including the late Nobel Prize-winning novelist Saul Bellow, political philosophers Alan Bloom and Hannah Arendt, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich Von Hayek. The late Francois Furet, one of France s leading intellectuals, was a member of the committee as was John Coetzee, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. (Univeristy of Chicago Chronicle, IL)
The secret library of hope Dec 21, 2007
Schell himself is much taken with the philosopher Hannah Arendt, whom he quotes saying, in 1969. To substitute violence for power can bring victory, but the price is very high; for it is not only paid by the vanquished, it is also paid by the victor in terms of his own power. (Asia Times Online)
Jusuf Kalla's simplistic conception of democracy Dec 21, 2007
Golkar Party chairman Jusuf Kalla may not have been acquainted with Hannah Arendt -- a Jewish, German political thinker who taught at several prestigious universities in the U.S. -- but they have something in common; politics. While Kalla is a politician who has held elite positions in the Golkar Party for decades, Arendt was a leading political thinker who dedicated her life to developing political and democratic theories. (Jakarta Post, Indonesia -- Editorial)
Solnit: Hope Library Dec 19, 2007
Schell himself is much taken with the philosopher Hannah Arendt, whom he quotes saying, in 1969. . (Zmag.org)
Schell: Interview Dec 6, 2007
"That's my Hannah Arendt pile up there," he says, gesturing toward a shelf I'm examining. He's sitting at his desk, his legs up and an iMac perched on his knees. (Zmag.org)
Nazi Hunt Announced in Argentina Nov 28, 2007
Eichmann was hanged in 1962 in Israel, after a trial that led journalist Hannah Arendt to coin the term "the banality of evil.". . (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- World)
What spells success? Nov 4, 2007
I was in a book store recently where the juxtaposition of titles about Hannah Arendt, the political philosopher, and Annie Leibowitz, celebrity photographer and longtime companion of the late Susan Sontag, caught my attention. The work of Sontag and Arendt has occasionally been compared, but most Americans today who know Sontag probably connect her to Leibowitz, thanks to the gossip columns. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA)
No apologies from Rudd hard man Nov 3, 2007
" But perhaps the most striking statement was his commitment to not interfere in the running of companies and banks. Howard and Costello have attacked some executive pay deals as "over the top" and lectured the banks over their lending rates. This has not changed corporate behaviour, but it is an attempt at moral suasion. Swan took a laissez-faire approach. Executive pay was "entirely a matter for the shareholders of the companies concerned". And "I'm not in the business of giving the banks... (Sydney Morning Herald -- Australia)
The Himmler Brothers Oct 27, 2007
In an attempt to explain the way ordinary people are capable of extraordinary acts, Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt coined the phrase "the banality of evil". She did not mean that the perpetrators of the Holocaust were "banal" but that they were just ordinary people who led ordinary lives. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Comment: Pankaj Mishra Oct 1, 2007
Today the Burmese generals confront the "authentic, enduring power" of people, before which, as Hannah Arendt presciently wrote in her analysis of the Prague Spring of 1968, a repressive regime eventually surrenders. The Buddhist monks chanting on the streets of Rangoon may look naive and defenceless when you consider the power of the political-military institutions of the modern, secular era that they are up against: heavily armed nation-states with hyper-competitive capitalist economies. (Guardian Unlimited)
Why are we here? Sep 17, 2007
At Yale, where I teach, incoming freshmen can apply to the Directed Studies program, which begins in the fall with Herodotus, Homer, and Plato, and concludes in the spring with Wittgenstein, T. S. Eliot, and Hannah Arendt. These programs differ in many ways, and inevitably reflect the culture of their schools; some are mandatory and others, like Yale's Directed Studies, are elective. (Boston Globe)
Post-war writer is Holland’s conscience Sep 7, 2007
His report on the trial advanced a theory of Eichmann s ordinariness similar to Hannah Arendt s study of the banality of evil in Eichmann in Jerusalem. My book was first, says Mulisch, noting that Arendt cites his work approvingly. (Cleveland Jewish News, OH)
* Authoritarianism wears a new face Sep 2, 2007
In her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt coined the phrase "banality of evil" to describe the phenomenon by which great evil is often committed not by sociopaths but rather individuals who blindly accept the rules imposed by the state and therefore believe that acting in accordance with those rules -- regardless of the outcome -- is normal. The strange twist in the Chinese Web police scheme, however, is that it does not target the would-be perpetrators of a crime but... (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- Business)
This Day in History Aug 31, 2007
Hannah Arendt, German-born author, philosopher and historian (1906-1975). Untitled Document. (Montana Standard, MT)
Virginia Newspaper Owner Describes Former Association With LaRouche Aug 1, 2007
But in the wake of the Nixon landslide, and estranged from my family because of my radicalism, I took a hard turn to the left, abandoning the theories of Hannah Arendt for Rosa Luxemburg. So I got involved with LaRouche, despite warnings from some, like Rep. (PR Newswire)
The Last Resistance Jul 20, 2007
From Baruch Spinoza to Hannah Arendt, there is a long tradition of celebrated Jewish thinkers ostracised by the Jewish world. British cultural critic Jacqueline Rose entered this lineage in 2005 when The Question of Zion was published to a mostly hostile reception from Jewish critics. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Jacobs: Architecture as Military Strategy Jul 15, 2007
Furthermore, it reveals the nature of that occupation--a nature that can best be described by borrowing the title of a book written by Hannah Arendt about another type of engineering. What Weizman details within these pages is nothing less than a modern day example of what Arendt so aptly called "the banality of evil.". (Zmag.org)
Read More... Jul 12, 2007
The numerous bookstores on Enqelab Avenue across from Tehran University carried an array of newly translated books by Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault, among others. A lecture on "Foucault and Feminism" at Alzahra Women's University elicited enthusiastic responses, including one from a high university official clad from head to toe in a black chador. (Disinformation)
In Defense Of Patriotism Jul 11, 2007
Hannah Arendt articulately summed up the sentiment: "I have never in my life 'loved' any people or collective -- neither the German people, nor the French, nor the American, nor the working class or anything of that sort. I indeed love 'only' my friends and the only kind of love I know of and believe in is the love of persons.". This critique carries a grain of truth. (Human Events Online)
World through Woody's eyes Jul 7, 2007
Brothers and Hannah Arendt. As fictioneer, Allen has the ear of a comedian and the erudition of a Carnegie Deli waiter with a doctorate in European literature. (Newsday -- Entertainment)
Is the Internet killing culture? Jun 11, 2007
we talk about it amongst ourselves, but not in public," Shirky wrote in a blog post afterward. Keen, for his part, rejects any notion that he is a modern Luddite out to break the machinery of the Web. He keeps up a regular dialog with friends and opponents at his blog at http://andrewkeen.typepad.com. He points to intellectual influences such as German-American political theorist Hannah Arendt, known for her work on the nature of totalitarianism and the "banality of evil," and Jurgen Habermas,... (Xinhuanet, China)
'Amateur' blogosphere? Jun 6, 2007
He points to intellectual influences such as German-American political theorist Hannah Arendt, known for her work on the nature of totalitarianism and the "banality of evil," and Jurgen Habermas, the German philosopher who defined the concepts of the private and public spheres in politics. "The price we pay for the growth in egalitarianism offered by the Internet is the decentralized access to unedited stories. In this medium, contributions by intellectuals lose their power to create a focus,"... (Globe and Mail)
My thesis and the University: Thanks, and suggestions Apr 5, 2007
I received monies from the Class of 1955 Fund to attend an October conference at which world experts discussed eloquently Hannah Arendt. My ideas germinated wildly as I frantically took notes, trying to grasp at the pearls of wisdom scattered about by the members of the panels. (The Daily Princetonian, NJ)
The Castle in the Forest Mar 24, 2007
Hitler's notoriety mirrors that of the Adolf Eichmann whom Hannah Arendt portrays in Eichmann in Jerusalem: a report on the banality of evil (1963). The same dullness and superficiality of mind that turned Hitler away from heavyweight thinkers such as Kant and Schiller led him to those cheap mystical certainties that trumpeted the supremacy of the blood. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Let's talk about the birds and the tease Mar 23, 2007
There must have been a time when Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt, brilliant philosophers, flirted. Surely there was some prelude to their notorious love affair. (National Post)
Department of Defense Media Availability with Secretary of Defense Gates Enroute to Washington D.C. from U.S. Central Command Mar 17, 2007
Maybe, but it was -- according to Gordon -- a really -- I can't remember the exact word he used, but it was sort of a stunning -- you know, Hannah Arendt wrote that book -- spoke of the banality of evil. And that's sort of the way I interpreted Gordons description of this guy his laconic answers to the head of the tribunals questions, his politeness. (DOD DefenseLINK -- News)
Review: At The Same Time Mar 9, 2007
Writing to Hannah Arendt in December 1967, Mary McCarthy reported Susan Sontag's arrest in an antiwar demonstration, and then abruptly asked: "And what about her? When I last watched her with you at the Lowells, it was clear that she was going to seek to conquer you. Or that she had fallen in love with you the same thing. Anyway, did she?" ... Hannah Arendt, a refugee from Hitler's Germany and analyst of totalitarianism, clearly embodied the virtues "of the European suffering, of European... (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
Podur Interviews Zahalka Mar 2, 2007
The Jewish intellectual Hannah Arendt wrote, after the Zionist conference in the early 1940s, that Zionists were proposing to Palestinians either that they leave their country or to agree to second-degree citizenship. This was the way to build a Jewish state. (Zmag.org)
- Gaby Wood: The new Jewish question Feb 11, 2007
But then many of them, like Hannah Arendt or Arthur Koestler, both of whom were Zionists at various points, took their distance, on the grounds that it was already clear to them that Israel was going to become the kind of state that as a cosmopolitan Jew they couldn't identify with. Ever since then, there has been an unbroken tradition of non-Israeli Jews who regard Israel as either unrelated to their own identity or something of which they sometimes approve, sometimes disapprove, sometimes... (Guardian Unlimited)
Johnson: Empire v. Democracy Feb 3, 2007
In her book The Origins of Totalitarianism, the political philosopher Hannah Arendt offered the following summary of British imperialism and its fate. . (Zmag.org)
Opine: Herman Sinaiko Jan 19, 2007
Hannah Arendt asked us to think what we are doing and showed us how to do that by articulating a whole range of unprecedented events in our world that needed to be thought about. I m not sure that there has been much advance in thinking about what we are doing in recent years. (Univeristy of Chicago Chronicle, IL)
An emotional tribute to a hero Jan 18, 2007
One that would better capture what Hannah Arendt referred to in her posthumously published essay Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship: "I think we shall have to admit that there exist extreme situations in which responsibility for the world, which is primarily political, cannot be assumed because political responsibility always presupposes a minimum of political power. . . . It is precisely in this admission of one's own impotence that a last remnant of strength and even power can still be... (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
