Reflecting on Totalitarian Politics: The Hannah Arendt Collection 1

One of the Most Original Philosophers of the Twentieth Century

Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Hannah Arendt's Passing · Taiwan's First Anthology of Her Untranslated Classics
Curated by Yeh Hao, Chairman of the Hannah Arendt Society of Taiwan, and Edited by Li Yu-chung, Translator of "The Origins of Totalitarianism"

A Thematic Presentation of Arendt's Important Writings, the Best Introduction to Her Thought

◤ Volume 1: Rethinking Totalitarianism ◢

Thinking and Understanding are the Only Ways to Traverse the Shadow of Totalitarianism

"To understand totalitarianism is not to forgive, but to reconcile ourselves to a world in which such things have become possible."
—Hannah Arendt

From "The Origins of Totalitarianism" to scattered essays and lectures, Arendt relentlessly questioned totalitarian politics throughout her life. This book compiles her most representative texts on totalitarian thought, including "Understanding and Politics," "On the Nature of Totalitarianism," "Reply to Voegelin: On the Methodology of Writing about Totalitarianism," "Crisis and Reconstruction: Conclusion to the First Edition of The Origins of Totalitarianism," and "Organized Guilt," spanning her early post-war intellectual period. These are indispensable key selections for understanding Arendt's political philosophy.

Rather than focusing on what totalitarianism itself is, Arendt was more concerned with how people could maintain the capacity for questioning and understanding in difficult circumstances. Faced with an unprecedented radical evil in history, we have no basis and no means to judge. But if we give up the effort to understand, we will be unable to re-root ourselves and settle in this world. Understanding is difficult, yet it is the source of our actions and a necessary condition for thinking and judging.

Today, as war, hatred, and false narratives once again permeate the public sphere, Arendt's warning about the difficulty and necessity of "understanding" remains pertinent to our current reality.