The Banality of Evil: Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem Martin
Kaufman Mondays, April 20, 27, May 4, 11, 18, June 1 6:30 – 8:00 PM
In the spring of 1961, The New Yorker sent political philosopher
Hannah Arendt to Jerusalem to cover the trial of the organizer of the
mass deportation of European Jews to Nazi death camps. To the shock of
her readers, Arendt concluded that Lt. Col. Adolf Eichmann was not
the monster most imagined. Rather, he was “terribly and terrifyingly
normal.” In this course, we will read Arendt’s compilation of
her reports, Eichmann in Jerusalem, and explore her argument that
those who commit monstrous acts are not necessarily psychopaths, that
many act from a certain thoughtlessness rooted in the distortions of
reality endemic to totalitarian mythology, a provocative insight that
led to her groundbreaking and controversial work about the banality of
evil. All readings will be from Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in
Jerusalem. The book is included in the price of the class.
212.507.9580 | EmanuelStreickerNYC.org
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02/06/2020 Last update