What Hannah Arendt thinks about government
German-born American political theorist (1906 to 1975); author of The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), The Human Condition (1958) and Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), her report on the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann.
Hannah Arendt did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
2 dated positions, c. 1964 to c. 1963–1964, in their own words. Our reading of what Hannah Arendt has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsThe story of the Danish Jews is sui generis, and the behavior of the Danish people and their government was unique among all the countries of Europe - whether occupied, or a partner of the Axis, or neutral and truly independent.
↗Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics, 2006 edition)books.google.com All 11 from this book
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Their wordsEvery government assumes political responsibility for the deeds and misdeeds of its predecessor and every nation for the deeds and misdeeds of the past.
↗Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics, 2006 edition)books.google.com All 11 from this book
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.