Description:
German-born American political scientist and philosopher known for her critical writing on Jewish affairs and her study of totalitarianism. Arendt's reputation as a major political thinker was established by her Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), which also treated 19th-century anti-Semitism, imperialism, and racism. Arendt viewed the growth of totalitarianism as the outcome of the disintegration of the traditional nation-state.
Born October 14, 1906, Hannover, Germany, died December 4, 1975, New York, New York, U.S.