Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) was a German American writer, political scientist and Holocaust survivor. She remains widely regarded as one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Born into a German-Jewish family in Hanover, she spent her childhood in Hanover as well as in Königsberg, Prussia. She began her studies in philosophy at the University of Marburg in 1924 and received her doctorate from the University of Heidelberg in 1929. Her philosophical writings are characterised by a strong rebuke of totalitarianism, Nazism, racism and imperialism. Once the Nazi’s came to power in 1933, she was briefly imprisoned for performing illegal research into antisemitism. Upon her release, she lived in exile in Paris, where she lived until she fled persecution for the United States in 1941. Ten years later, she was naturalised as an American citizen. While in the US, Arendt wrote some of her most significant works, including The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) and The Human Condition (1958). She also taught philosophy at the University of Chicago and later, at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where she resided until her death in 1975. This bookend is part of the series Radical Stands; the result of a collaboration between the publisher TankeKraft and Jan Landqvist. As of May 2022, Radical Stands are part of the Novellix bookend series. The conception and design behind our bookends stem from Swedish renowned industrial designer, Jan Landqvist and are made in the small town of Gnosjö in the south of Sweden.