One of the twentieth century's most prolific thinkers here offers a startling account of the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, and an attempt to diagnose and dissect the moral collapse at the root of his crimes. Arendt's perspective is one challenging in its candour, at once disturbing and deeply important, which serves ultimately as an unforgettable lesson in the 'fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil'.
'Brilliant and disturbing' Stephen Spender, New York Review of Books
The classic work on 'the banality of evil', and a journalistic masterpiece
Hannah Arendt's stunning and unnverving report on the trial of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a series of articles in the New Yorker in 1963. This edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt's postscript directly addressing the controversy that arose over her account. A major journalistic triumph by an intellectual of singular influence, this classic portrayal of the banality of evil is as shocking as it is informative - an unflinching look at one of the most unsettling issues of the twentieth century.
'Deals with the greatest problem of our time ... the problem of the human being within a modern totalitarian system' Bruno Bettelheim
