Life, Theory, and Group Identity in Hannah Arendt's Thought

Philosophy typically ignores biographical, historical, and cultural aspects of theoriss’ lives  in an attempt to take a supposedly abstract and objective view of their work. This book makes some new conclusions about Arendt’s theory by emphasizing how her experience of the world as displayed in her archival materials impacted her thought. Some aspects of Arendt’s life have been examined in detail before, including the fact she was stateless as well as her affair with Heidegger. Instead, this work explores different topics including the biographical and narrative moments of Arendt's own work, the role of archiving in her thought, pivotal events that have not been archived, her understanding of her own identities, and how it affected the role of identity politics in her work. Typically, group action is underemphasized in Arendt scholarship in comparison to individual action and often identity politics questions are considered to lie within the realm of the private. Although Arendt’s theory is problematic when discussing issues concerning identity politics, she did think identity politics could be public and political and that effective political actions may occur within groups. What makes this project unique are the innovative conclusions made by moving the archival and biographical evidence to the center in order to understand her theory more accurately and within its historical and cultural context. This volume will be of interest to professional scholars in Arendt’s work, but also to those who have a more general interest in her life and theory.

In this innovative and gripping book, Karin Fry does to Arendt what Arendt did to her protagonists in Men in Dark Times: to tell her life stories to illuminate her ideas and the dark times in which she lived. The result is not only an incisive analysis of Arendt’s thought, her complex identities and their political relevance but also a forceful demonstration of how philosophy and biography can be brought together to yield new insights.  

 -Kei Hiruta, Aarhus University, author of Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin 

Fry combines new material regarding Arendt’s detention at Gurs, with an examination of Walter Benjamin’s project, in order to challenge the traditional way that we ‘do’ philosophy. The result is a fresh look at Arendt’s attempt to articulate the importance of identity whilst preserving a distinction between public and private.

-Kimberly Maslin, Hendrix College

Karin Fry is Department Chair and Professor of Philosophy at Georgia Southern  University, USA. She is the author of Arendt: a Guide for the Perplexed (2009) and Religious Right and Secular Left: The Road to Compromise (2014), and is managing editor of Arendt Studies, a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of the life, work, and legacy of Hannah Arendt.