Political Thinkers on Different Planes

A nuanced interpretation centering on Berlin’s dislike of much of Arendt’s writings.

This is a fascinating analysis of two of the 20th century’s most influential critics of totalitarianism. Part intellectual history, biographical study and discussion of Hannah Arendt’s and Isaiah Berlin’s contrasting views on political theory, Kei Hiruta’s work is a nuanced interpretation centering on Berlin’s irritation with and dislike of much of Arendt’s writings.

As Jewish intellectuals straddling academia and politics, both explored notions of freedom, liberalism and the nature of repression associated with Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. As refugees who

embraced their adopted

homelands in the US and UK, they had sharply contrasting views of nationalism and the causes of totalitarianism.

Berlin’s respect for British

philosophical empiricism contrasted with Arendt’s embrace of phenomenology and the idealism of some European thinkers that Berlin saw as boring or banal. Both embraced the relationship between political theory and practice, but for Arendt resistance or support for revolution was empowering even if its outcomes were doomed — a perspective that underpinned her support for the Hungarian uprising of 1956 or her controversial criticism of the failings of some Jews in their limited resistance to Nazism.

Hiruta deftly reveals the flaws of both writers while capturing their brilliance, humanity and abiding influence on the history of ideas.

Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin

By Kei Hiruta

Princeton University Press, 2021, 288 pages, $26.35 (Hardback)