Between past freedom. Six exercises in political thought

256 Pages·2016·21.47 MB·English

by  Arendt H.

-
and
Six Exercises in Political Thought
'HANNAH ARENDT
by
For those seeking to understand our
times Hannah Arendt has become a
guide and an inspiration. Her pene-
trating observations of the modern
world,basedonaprofoundknowledge
of the past, constitute a major con-
tribution to political philosophy.
In this volume she describes the
crisis,orratherseriesofcrises,thatwe
face as a result of the breakdown of
tradition. That tradition, our heritage
from Rome, no longer relieves us of
the necessity ofthoughtby supplying
usable, ready-made answers. It has
ceasedtobridgethegapbetweenpast
and future. And so this gap, once
visible only to those few who made
thinking their business, has become a
tangible reality and perplexity to us
all. It has indeed become a pressing
and inescapablefactofpolitics.
The modern world has not been
trainedforthetaskofre-examiningits
basic words and concepts. Funda-
(Continued on the back flap)
JACKETDESIGNBYEGBERTHALLOCK
THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK
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Arendt
Between past and future
Also by Hannah Arendt
THE HUMAN CONDITION
ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM
Hannah Arendt
BETWEEN
PAST
AND
FUTURE
Six Exercises in
Political
Thought
1961
THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK
Copyright 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961 by Hannah Arendt
All rights reserved
Published in 1961 by The Viking Press, Inc.
625 Madison Avenue, New York 22, N.Y.
Published simultaneously inCanada by
The MacmiHan Company of Canada Limited
Part of Chapter III was first published in Notnos I: Authority, edited
by Carl J. Friedrich for the American Society of Political and Legal
Philosophy, copyright 1958 by the President and Fellows of Har-
vard College, published by The Liberal Arts Press, a Division of The
Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. Part of Chapter VI was first published
inDaedalus, copyright 1960 by the American Academy ofArts and
Sciences, and other chapters or parts of chapters in Chicago Review,
Partisan Review, and Review of Politics.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without
permission from The Viking Press, Inc.
Library of Congress catalog card number: 61-7281
Printed in the U.S.A. by Vail-Ballou Press
For Heinrich
after twenty-five years
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The essays in this book are revised and enlarged versions of those
which appeared in the following magazines during the last six
years: Partisan Review, Review of Politics, Nomos, Daedalus,
Chicago Review. "The Crisis in Education" was translated from
the German by Denver Lindley.
CONTENTS
PREFACE: The Gap between Past and Future 3
1. Tradition and the Modern Age 17
2. The Concept of History: ANCIENT AND
MODERN 41
3. What Is Authority? 91
4. WhatIsFreedom? 143
The Crisis in Education 173
5".
6. The Crisis in Culture: ITS SOCIAL AND ITS
POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE 197
NOTES 227
INDEX 243