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The international origins of Hannah Arendt’s historical method

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 04:10 authored by Patricia Owens
This article examines the multiple ways in which Hannah Arendt’s thought arose historically and in international context, but also how we might think about history and theory in new ways with Arendt. It is commonplace to situate Arendt’s political and historical thought as a response to totalitarianism. However, far less attention has been paid to the significance of other specifically and irreducibly international experiences and events. Virtually all of her singular contributions to political and international thought were influenced by her lived experiences of and historical reflections on statelessness and exile, imperialism, transnational totalitarianism, world wars, the nuclear revolution, the founding of Israel, war crimes trials, and the war in Vietnam. Yet we currently lack a comprehensive reconstruction of the extent to which Arendt’s thought was shaped by the fact of political multiplicity, that there are not one but many polities existing on earth and inhabiting the world. This neglect is surprising in light of the significant ‘international turn’ in the history of thought and intellectual history; the growing interest in Arendt’s thought within international theory; and, above all, Arendt’s own unwavering commitment to plurality not simply as a characteristic of individuals but as an essential and intrinsically valuable effect of distinct territorial entities. The article examines the historical and international context of Arendt’s historical method, including her critique of process- and development-oriented histories that remain current in different social science fields, setting out and evaluating her alternative approach to historical writing.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Political Power and Social Theory

ISSN

0198-8719

Publisher

Emerald Group Publishing

Volume

32

Page range

37-62

Department affiliated with

  • International Relations Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Centre for Advanced International Theory Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-11-24

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-01-19

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-11-24

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