Hannah Arendt

Why is Hannah Arendt currently our most cited philosopher and political theorist? In her life and in her work, Arendt always wanted to be ‘completely contemporary’, and confronted her own era with its dramatic upheavals and abysses. In this book, historian of ideas and Arendt biographer Thomas Meyer traces the stages of the philosopher’s life, from Königsberg to Paris and New York, and relates them closely to her work. He gives us a concise introduction to her most important works and presents them as commentaries on contemporary history. It is this contemporaneity that makes Hannah Arendt so attractive to us in the 21st century.

• 128 pages with 10 illustrations (C.H.Beck Wissen)