Hannah Arendt is considered one of the most influential political philosophers of the 20th century.[5] In 1998 Walter Laqueur stated "No twentieth-century philosopher and political thinker has at the present time as wide an echo", as philosopher, historian, sociologist and also journalist.[367] Arendt's legacy has been described as a cult.[367][368] In a 2016 review of a documentary about Arendt, the journalist A. O. Scott describes Hannah Arendt as "of unmatched range and rigor" as a thinker, although she is primarily known for the series of articles known as Eichmann in Jerusalem that she wrote for The New Yorker, and in particular for the one phrase "the banality of evil".[294]
She shunned publicity, never expecting, as she explained to Karl Jaspers in 1951, to see herself as a "cover girl" on the newsstands.[az][214] In Germany, there are tours available of sites associated with her life.[371]
The study of the life and work of Hannah Arendt, and of her political and philosophical theory is described as Arendtian.[260][372] In her will she established the Hannah Arendt Bluecher Literary Trust as the custodian of her writings and photographs.[373] Her personal library was deposited at Bard College at the Stevenson Library in 1976, and includes approximately 4,000 books, ephemera, and pamphlets from Arendt's last apartment as well as her desk (in McCarthy House).[374] The college has begun archiving some of the collection digitally, which is available at The Hannah Arendt Collection.[375] Most of her papers were deposited at the Library of Congress and her correspondence with her German friends and mentors, such as Heidegger, Blumenfeld and Jaspers, at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach.[376] The Library of Congress listed more than 50 books written about her in 1998, and that number has continued to grow, as have the number of scholarly articles, estimated as 1000 at that time.[367]
Her life and work is recognized by the institutions most closely associated with her teaching, by the creation of Hannah Arendt Centers at both Bard (Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities)[377] and The New School,[378] both in New York State. In Germany, her contributions to understanding authoritarianism is recognised by the Hannah-Arendt-Institut für Totalitarismusforschung (Hannah Arendt Institute for the Research on Totalitarianism) in Dresden. There are Hannah Arendt Associations (Hannah Arendt Verein)[367] such as the Hannah Arendt Verein für politisches Denken in Bremen that awards the annual Hannah-Arendt-Preis für politisches Denken (Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thinking) established in 1995. In Oldenburg, the Hannah Arendt Center at Carl von Ossietzky University was established in 1999,[379] and holds a large collection of her work (Hannah Arendt Archiv),[380] and administers the internet portal HannahArendt.net (A Journal for Political Thinking)[381] as well as a monograph series, the Hannah Arendt-Studien.[382] In Italy, the Hannah Arendt Center for Political Studies is situated at the University of Verona for Arendtian studies.[372]
In 2017 a journal, Arendt Studies, was launched to publish articles related to the study of the life, work, and legacy of Hannah Arendt.[383] Many places associated with her, have memorabilia of her on display, such as her student card at the University of Heidelberg (see image).[384] 2006, the centennial of her birth, saw commemorations of her work in conferences and celebrations around the world.[44]
Of the many photographic portraits of Arendt, that taken in 1944 by Fred Stein (see image), whose work she greatly admired,[ba] has become iconic, and has been described as better known than the photographer himself,[386] having appeared on a German postage stamp.(see image) Among organizations that have recognized Arendt's contributions to civilization and human rights, is the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).[387]
Contemporary interest
Courtyard of Arendt's house in Linden-MitteThe rise of nativism, such as the election of Donald Trump in the United States,[234][327][388] and concerns regarding an increasingly authoritarian style of governance has led to a surge of interest in Arendt and her writings,[389] including radio broadcasts[390] and writers, including Jeremy Adelman[145] and Zoe Williams,[391] to revisit Arendt's ideas to seek the extent to which they inform our understanding of such movements,[392][393] which are being described as "Dark Times".[394] At the same time Amazon reported that it had sold out of copies of The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951).[395] Michiko Kakutani has addressed what she refers to as "the death of truth".[396] In her 2018 book, The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump, she argues that the rise of totalitarianism has been founded on the violation of truth. She begins her book with an extensive quote from The Origins of Totalitarianism:[186]
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist[397][398]
Kakutani and others believed that Arendt's words speak not just events of a previous century but apply equally to the contemporary cultural landscape[399] populated with fake news and lies. She also draws on Arendt's essay "Lying in Politics" from Crises in the Republic[217] pointing to the lines:
The historian knows how vulnerable is the whole texture of facts in which we spend our daily life; it is always in danger of being perforated by single lies or torn to shreds by the organized lying of groups, nations, or classes, or denied and distorted, often carefully covered up by reams of falsehoods or simply allowed to fall into oblivion. Facts need testimony to be remembered and trustworthy witnesses to be established in order to find a secure dwelling place in the domain of human affairs[400]
Arendt drew attention to the critical role that propaganda plays in gaslighting populations, Kakutani observes, citing the passage:[401][402]
In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true . ... The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness[403]
Arendt took a broader perspective on history than merely totalitarianism in the early 20th century, stating "the deliberate falsehood and the outright lie have been used as legitimate means to achieve political ends since the beginning of recorded history."[404][405] Contemporary relevance is also reflected in the increasing use of the phrase, attributed to her, "No one has the right to obey" to reflect that actions result from choices, and hence judgement, and that we cannot disclaim responsibility for that which we have the power to act upon.[326] In addition those centers established to promote Arendtian studies continue to seek solutions to a wide range of contemporary issues in her writing.[406]
Arendt's teachings on obedience have also been linked to the controversial psychology experiments by Stanley Milgram, that implied that ordinary people can easily be induced to commit atrocities.[407][408] Milgram himself drew attention to this in 1974, stating that he was testing the theory that Eichmann like others would merely follow orders, but unlike Milgram she argued that actions involve responsibility.[409][410]
Arendt's theories on the political consequences of how nations deal with refugees have remained relevant and compelling. Arendt had observed first hand the displacement of large stateless and rightsless populations, treated not so much as people in need than as problems to solve, and in many cases, resist.[294] She wrote about this in her 1943 essay "We refugees".[411][412] Another Arendtian theme that finds an echo in contemporary society is her observation, inspired by Rilke, of the despair of not being heard, the futility of tragedy that finds no listener that can bring comfort, assurance and intervention. An example of this being gun violence in America and the resulting political inaction.[100]
In Search of the Last Agora, an illustrated documentary film by Lebanese director Rayyan Dabbous about Hannah Arendt's 1958 work The Human Condition, was released in 2018 to mark the book's 50th anniversary. Screened at Bard College, the experimental film is described as finding "new meaning in the political theorist's conceptions of politics, technology and society in the 1950s", particularly in her prediction of abuses of phenomena unknown in Arendt's time, including social media, intense globalization, and obsessive celebrity culture.[413]
Commemorations
Hannah Arendt's life and work continue to be commemorated in many different ways, including plaques (Gedenktafeln) indicating places she has lived. Public places and institutions bear her name,[414] including schools.[415] There is also a Hannah Arendt Day (Hannah Arendt Tag) in her birthplace.[416] Objects named after her vary from asteroids to trains[367][368] and she has been commemorated in stamps. Museums and foundations include her name.[417]
