The Promise of Politics or The Weimar Culture

The Promise of Politics

Author: Hannah Arendt

In The Promise of Politics, Hannah Arendt examines the conflict between philosophy and politics. In particular, she shows how the tradition of Western political thought, which extends from Plato and Aristotle to its culmination in Marx, failed to account for human action. The concluding section of the book, “Introduction into Politics,” examines an issue that is as timely today as it was when Arendt first wrote about it fifty years ago–the modern prejudice against politics. When politics is considered as a means to an end that lies outside of itself, argues Arendt, when force is used to create “freedom,” the very existence of political principles is imperiled.

Table of Contents:

	Introduction
	Socrates	5
	The tradition of political thought	40
	Montesquieu's revision of the tradition	63
	From Hegel to Marx	70
	The end of tradition	81
	Introduction into politics	93

Look this: Cooking with Riesling or Kosher Kettle

The Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider

Author: Peter Gay

From the Brecht-Weill Threepenny Opera to the Warburg Institute, from the Bauhaus to The Magic Mountain, the Weimar Republic (1918-1933) has become a legend for its intense creativity during a time of political upheaval. In this vivid account, the distinguished historian Peter Gay traces the rise of the artistic, literary, and musical culture that bloomed so briefly in the 1920s amid the chaos of Germany's tenuous post-World War I democracy and crashed violently in the wake of Hitler's rise to power.

New York Times

[A]n enormously rich, intriguing, and exciting essay.... A major contribution to the study...