This new edition, published to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of its original publication, contains an improved and expanded index and a new introduction by noted Arendt scholar Margaret Canovan which incisively analyzes the book's argument and examines its present relevance. A classic in political and social theory, The Human Condition is a work that has proved both timeless and perpetually timely.
From the book:
“Wherever the relevance of speech is at stake, matters become political by definition, for speech is what makes man a political being."
"Man cannot be free if he does not know that he is subject to necessity, because his freedom is always won in his never wholly successful attempts to liberate himself from necessity."
"Power corrupts...when the weak band together in order to ruin the strong, but not before. The will to power...far from being a characteristic of the strong, is, like envy and greed, among the vices of the weak, and possibly even their most dangerous one."
Book Reviews:
W. H. Auden
"Every now and then, I come across a book that gives me the impression of having been especially written for me. .. The Human Condition belongs to this small and select class."
Mary McCarthy, The New Yorker
"The combination of tremendous intellectual power with great common sense makes Miss Arendt's insights into history and politics seem both amazing and obvious.
William Barrett, Partisan Review
"A really superb work, one of the best interpretations of contemporary history that has appeared in years."
