Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), German-born American political scientist and social commentator, noted for her writings on totalitarianism and Jewish affairs.

Arendt was born in Hanover, on October 14, 1906. After studies at three universities, she received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Heidelberg at the age of 22. In 1933 she went to France to escape the Nazis and, in 1941, fled to the United States, becoming a United States citizen in 1951. In New York she worked as an editor and held key positions in several Jewish organizations. After the publication of her widely acclaimed Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), Arendt became a professor and lecturer at such schools as the University of California at Berkeley, Princeton University, and the University of Chicago. Among her many other writings are The Human Condition (1958), Between Past and Future (1961), On Revolution (1963), and the controversial Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), based on her reportage of the Nazi war criminals trial in 1961. Her memoirs, Correspondence, 1926-1969, were published in 1992. Her works remain widely read, especially among dissidents struggling under totalitarian regimes. They exercised a profound influence on the leading signatories of the Charter 77 human rights movement in post-Stalinist Czechoslovakia.