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| November 10, 2005 |
REVIEW: The Promise of Politics
 Yet another piece of previously-unpublished material from Hanna Arendt was released under the tender care of editor Jerome Kohn. As opposed to Responsibility and Judgment, this latest volume (published in July of this year - a hardback edition of Responsibility and Judgment was originally published in 2003) entitled The Promise of Politics isn't nearly as, what's the word for it... good.
This is not Hannah Arendt's fault. She is, after all, long dead and this was an unfinished and unpublished manuscript. One imagines if she'd lived long enough, she'd have taken a healthy dose of editting to the thing. Jerome Kohn, much as he might try, fails to make this more readable. Non-philosophers beware.
All of which is a shame. For a "philosopher" (Arendt didn't think of herself that way) the controversial woman was accessible to wide audiences. She spoke in heady terms, reminded us of what democratic discourse was ideally meant to be, and served as an examplar of the responsibility we share to think for ourselves. And in all of that, she managed to produce something you'd actually want to read.
This volume is harder to sink your teeth into, mainly because it's hard to get a hold of it long enough to take a bite. Once you finally get some semblance of bearings, there's simply not enough to sustain a reader. Nevertheless, for those who are willing to waid into the muck, there's plenty of substantive stuff here about the overarching course of Western political development and how it intertwines with our personal philosophies.
Just don't take it to the beach with you.
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