German-Jewish political philosopher whose experience of totalitarianism, statelessness, and exile shaped a body of work analyzing the nature of political action, the origins of modern tyranny, the 'banality of evil,' and the conditions under which human freedom and plurality can be sustained.
Hannah Arendt fled Nazi Germany, was interned in a French camp, escaped to America, and spent the rest of her life trying to understand how the catastrophes she had witnessed were possible. Her answers remain among the most searching in modern political thought — and among the most controversial.