Hannah Arendt is the thinker of the 20th century. Her writings and her life reflect the profound upheavals of that era: the rise and fall of totalitarian regimes, experiences of flight and alienation, but also hopeful new beginnings shaped her thinking. But Arendt did not want to merely report and bear witness; she wanted to understand. Like no other, she succeeded in understanding—and living through—the radical ruptures, existential losses, and unexpected opportunities of the dramatic 20th century.

Grit Straßenberger presents a new, vivid portrait of this extraordinary thinker: through a strong focus on the memories and stories told about Arendt by friends, colleagues, and students, we get to know the person behind the unique philosopher. Although she was deeply suspicious of the role of intellectuals, she became a world-class intellectual herself. Her thinking was provocative and idiosyncratic, she rubbed people up the wrong way everywhere she went, but she was anything but an isolated figure: Arendt's circle of acquaintances reads like a "Who's Who" of 20th-century Western intellectual history. Arendt led her century-spanning life as a "virtuoso of friendship," for whose thinking interpersonal connections were indispensable—and who can still be our friend in spirit today. [Publisher's information]

Prof. Dr. Grit Straßenberger holds the Chair Politische Theorie und Ideengeschichte at the University of Bonn and is co-editor of the work complex Between Past and Future.