German · 1906–1975
German-American political theorist who analyzed totalitarianism and the human condition. Born in Hanover, educated by Heidegger and Jaspers, she fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and settled in New York. The Origins of Totalitarianism traced anti-Semitism, imperialism, and total domination. The Human Condition distinguished labor, work, and action. Eichmann in Jerusalem proposed the "banality of evil." She taught at the New School and Chicago, wrote constantly, and became the most influential political philosopher of her generation. Her work remains essential for understanding modern politics.