Author Guide · Lisanne Swart
Books Written by Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt fled Nazi Germany, escaped an internment camp in France, and arrived in New York with almost nothing — and then spent the rest of her life trying to explain, in book after book, how ordinary people become capable of extraordinary evil, and what politics could look like if it didn’t. She died mid-sentence on her final book, and editors have spent the five decades since assembling everything she left unfinished. Below is her complete bibliography, in order.
By Lisanne Swart · 15 major works · 1951–2018 · Updated July 2026
Where to start
Her most famous book
Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963) — the book that coined “the banality of evil” and remains her most read and most argued-over work.
Her foundational work
The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) — the book that established her as a major political thinker.
The Origins of TotalitarianismStart here
Arendt’s first major book examines the shared political and historical roots of Nazism and Stalinism across three parts: the rise of antisemitism, the emergence of imperialism and racism, and the machinery of totalitarian rule. It established her reputation as a serious political thinker and remains one of the earliest standard works of totalitarianism research.
The Human Condition
An original philosophical study of the vita activa, the active life of labor, work, and action, examining the fundamental categories through which human beings engage with the world and with one another.
Between Past and Future
A collection of eight essays exploring the loss of meaning in traditional political concepts, including justice, authority, freedom, and tradition, attempting to redistill their vital essence for a modern reader.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil
Originally written as New Yorker articles covering the trial of Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, this book introduced the phrase “the banality of evil” and ignited fierce controversy, with critics accusing Arendt of portraying Eichmann as a mere bureaucrat rather than a committed antisemite.
On Revolution
Comparing the American and French Revolutions, Arendt argues that the American Revolution succeeded in founding lasting political freedom precisely where the French Revolution, consumed by questions of poverty and social need, ultimately failed.
Men in Dark Times
Borrowing its title from a phrase of Bertolt Brecht’s, this collection profiles figures including Walter Benjamin, Rosa Luxemburg, and Karl Jaspers, exploring how individuals maintain integrity and thought during eras of historical catastrophe.
On Violence
A short, pointed analysis of violence in the twentieth century, distinguishing violence sharply from power and examining their relationship to war, politics, and revolution.
Crises of the Republic
Four essays on civil disobedience, lying in politics, and violence written in response to the Pentagon Papers and Vietnam-era American politics, applying Arendt’s political philosophy to the crises of her own moment.
The Life of the Mind
Arendt’s final, unfinished philosophical project, examining the three faculties of the vita contemplativa: thinking, willing, and judging. She died before completing the third part, and the book was edited from her manuscripts and published posthumously by her friend Mary McCarthy.
Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy
Published posthumously and edited by Ronald Beiner, this volume reconstructs the political philosophy Arendt intended to derive from Kant’s aesthetics, based on her university lecture notes.
Essays in Understanding, 1930–1954
Edited by Jerome Kohn, this posthumous collection gathers Arendt’s essays from the first half of her career, covering her formation as a thinker, her exile, and her early writing on totalitarianism.
Responsibility and Judgment
Gathering unpublished writings from the final decade of her life, edited by Jerome Kohn, this collection addresses fundamental questions about the nature of evil and how individuals make moral choices under extreme conditions.
The Promise of Politics
Edited by Jerome Kohn, this posthumous volume examines the conflict between philosophy and politics, tracing how the Western political tradition from Plato through Marx repeatedly failed to adequately theorize political action.
The Jewish Writings
Edited by Jerome Kohn and Ron H. Feldman, this collection gathers Arendt’s essays and letters on Jewish identity, the destruction of European Jewry, and the relationship between world Jewry and the state of Israel, a subject she wrote about more than almost any other over her career.
Thinking Without a Banister: Essays in Understanding, 1953–1975
The companion volume to her earlier collected essays, edited by Jerome Kohn, gathering her writing from the second half of her career through her death in 1975.
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