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Hannah Arendt and the Constitution of Freedom
This week I gave a lecture at the University of São Paulo in Brazil that asked, Why Law Alone Can’t Defend Democracy—and why Only Power Can Check Power.03-30-2025
Articles
Not Just Racism
By Roger BerkowitzOn the eve of the Hannah Arendt Center’s Conference Racism and Antisemitism, it is worth thinking about Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Talking To Strangers. Gladwell seeks to understand what happened to Sandra Bland that led to her hanging in a Texas prison. It is known that Bland was pulled over in the Prairie View, Texas by officer Brian Encinia.
10-06-2019
What We're Reading: The History of Antisemitism
By Samantha HillJudith Butler reviewed Bari Weiss’s new book How to Fight Anti-Semitism for Jewish Currents. Butler’s book review is notable for a couple of reasons and worth reading whether one finds oneself politically closer to Butler or Weiss. The primary reason being: It’s rare to read a real book review these days that systematically works through the arguments in a text. Butler, a pro-BDS supporter, argues that Weiss lacks an historical understanding of antisemitism.
10-02-2019
Samantha Hill on Hannah Arendt's Relevance at this moment
The election of Donald Trump in 2016 brought new readers to Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism (published in 1951). Pete and I talk to Samantha Hill, assistant director of Bard College's Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities, about the insights Arendt's thought offers us today.09-24-2019
Reimagining Human Health
The health concerns of the 21st century have shifted since the discovery of antibiotics in the 1920s. Over the last century, infectious diseases faded from view as the greatest threat to human health. During the same period, chronic inflammatory and noncommunicable diseases like asthma, Alzheimer’s, lupus, arthritis, Crohn’s, IBD, celiac disease, obesity, and others have increased exponentially...09-24-2019
Jaspers and Heinrich Blücher’s Common Course
By Roger BerkowitzAs World War II came to an end, the German philosopher Karl Jaspers republished a revised edition of his 1923 book The Idea of the University. Jaspers saw universities as essential to the maintenance of a vibrant democracy. He was worried that the universities in Germany had become overly specialized and technical and that they had lost their true calling as institutions dedicated to communication and truth.
09-19-2019
The New Progressivism
By Roger BerkowitzGeorge Packer has a long and thoughtful essay about culture wars, meritocracy, and our children. The structure of the essay follows Packer and his wife as they navigate the New York City public and private schools. They pull their son out of an expensive private school to send him to a public school that is 38% white, 29% black, 24% Latino, and 7% Asian, closely representative of the city’s population. But the school is less academically rich than the private school...
09-19-2019
What We're Reading: Wendell Berry
Jedediah Britton-Purdy chronicles the life and work of Wendell Berry in The Nation. Berry’s writing, which won him a National Humanities Medal in 2011, has now been gathered in two volumes. The focus of Berry’s writing which reflects his agricultural lifestyle, has always spoken to larger political issues like environmentalism, violence, and economic inequality.09-17-2019
Sunday Listening: An Interview
With Roger Berkowitz
In advance of the Hannah Arendt Center's 12th Annual Fall Conference, titled "Racism and Antisemitism," Hillary Harvey interviews HAC founder and academic director Roger Berkowitz. 09-14-2019
Literary Prize for Peace
Please join us in congratulating Bard College Professor Nuruddin Farah who has won the 2019 Lee Hochul Literary prize for Peace, awarded in Seoul, South Korea.
09-09-2019