The Freedom to Be Free

From Thinking Without a Banister

This lecture is a brilliant encapsulation of Arendt’s widely influential arguments on revolution, and why the American Revolution—unlike all those preceding it—was uniquely able to install political freedom.

“The Freedom to be Free” was first published in Thinking Without a Banister, a varied collection of Arendt’s essays, lectures, reviews, interviews, speeches, and editorials—which, taken together, manifest the relentless activity of her mind and character and contain within them the articulations of wide and sophisticated range of her political thought.

A Vintage Shorts Selection. An ebook short.
Praise for Hannah Arendt's Thinking Without a Banister:

“Almost every essay in this book contains “pearls” of Arendt’s tonically subversive thinking, and many of her observations push readers to think harder about the language in which political activity is conducted.”
The New York Times Book Review

“This second volume of some 40 essays, interviews, conference presentations, acceptance speeches, letters and reviews, edited and introduced by Arendt scholar Kohn, reveals a wide focus, including the relationship of theory to practice, American elections, the Cold War, freedom, civic responsibility, and happiness….[Arendt] emerges as startlingly prescient: in an interview in 1973, for example, she emphasized that a free press is crucial in a democracy….A challenging, densely argued, provocative collection.” 
Kirkus Reviews

"The collection gives rare insights into Arendt’s personal opinions and reflections on her own work.... Contains a variety that will be illuminating and fascinating for both Arendt novices and experts."
Publisher's Weekly
© Courtesy of the Author
HANNAH ARENDT was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1906, fled to Paris in 1933, and came to the United States after the outbreak of World War II. She was the editorial director of Schocken Books from 1946 to 1948. She taught at Berkeley, Princeton, the University of Chicago, and The New School for Social Research. Among her other books are The Human Condition, On Revolution, and The Life of the Mind. She died in 1975. View titles by Hannah Arendt

About

This lecture is a brilliant encapsulation of Arendt’s widely influential arguments on revolution, and why the American Revolution—unlike all those preceding it—was uniquely able to install political freedom.

“The Freedom to be Free” was first published in Thinking Without a Banister, a varied collection of Arendt’s essays, lectures, reviews, interviews, speeches, and editorials—which, taken together, manifest the relentless activity of her mind and character and contain within them the articulations of wide and sophisticated range of her political thought.

A Vintage Shorts Selection. An ebook short.

Reviews

Praise for Hannah Arendt's Thinking Without a Banister:

“Almost every essay in this book contains “pearls” of Arendt’s tonically subversive thinking, and many of her observations push readers to think harder about the language in which political activity is conducted.”
The New York Times Book Review

“This second volume of some 40 essays, interviews, conference presentations, acceptance speeches, letters and reviews, edited and introduced by Arendt scholar Kohn, reveals a wide focus, including the relationship of theory to practice, American elections, the Cold War, freedom, civic responsibility, and happiness….[Arendt] emerges as startlingly prescient: in an interview in 1973, for example, she emphasized that a free press is crucial in a democracy….A challenging, densely argued, provocative collection.” 
Kirkus Reviews

"The collection gives rare insights into Arendt’s personal opinions and reflections on her own work.... Contains a variety that will be illuminating and fascinating for both Arendt novices and experts."
Publisher's Weekly

Author

© Courtesy of the Author
HANNAH ARENDT was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1906, fled to Paris in 1933, and came to the United States after the outbreak of World War II. She was the editorial director of Schocken Books from 1946 to 1948. She taught at Berkeley, Princeton, the University of Chicago, and The New School for Social Research. Among her other books are The Human Condition, On Revolution, and The Life of the Mind. She died in 1975. View titles by Hannah Arendt