Amor Mundi

The weekly newsletter of the Hannah Arendt Center

What is most difficult, writes Arendt, is to love the world as it is. Loving the world means neither uncritical acceptance nor contemptuous rejection, but the unwavering facing up to and comprehension of that which is. The opinions expressed in essays on our site are those of their authors.

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About

Amor Mundi (for love of the world) is an exploration of Arendtian topics delivered to your inbox every Sunday morning. This includes deep dives into the works of Hannah Arendt and the implications of her ideas on the world today. We feature varied, nuanced, and often opposing viewpoints in this non-partisan publication, and brave and provocative ideas that will help you (re)discover the joy of deep thinking and caring about the world.

When you subscribe to the newsletter, you'll also receive first-hand updates on what we’re doing at HAC (conferences, events, workshops, etc.), an Arendt Quote of the Week with in-depth analysis from Arendt scholars from around the world, and highlights of the work being done on campus by our Student Fellows. Be among the first to know about special offers from our partners and upcoming events!

We've been publishing weekly essays here on our website since 2010, and are now transitioning to the publication platform Medium. You can still read for free with links from our email each Sunday! But now you can highlight sections and comment, too!

Browse our Library of Amor Essays on Medium

A note to new Medium users: if you see an offer pop-up, just simply X out to close and continue reading. You can also Follow HAC on Medium and Subscribe to our publications, to receive additional notifications so you don't miss an essay.

The Radical Politics of Joy

"Is Joy really what Arendt wants us to be talking about, amidst the most racist, cruel, and criminal American administration since the Civil Rights era?" So asked one of my favorite former students, protesting the theme of this year's Hannah Arendt Center Conference: JOY: Loving the World in Dark Times.

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Civil Disobedience and the Spirit of American Democracy

Hannah Arendt wrote that, “Dissent implies consent, and is the hallmark of free government.” We are at a moment when dissent is required if we are to preserve our freedoms.

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Temptations of Tyranny

“If this isn’t tyranny, what is?” So asks Rod Dreher, one of President Trump’s most steadfast intellectual supporters, now increasingly alarmed by the President’s abuses of power.

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An Open Letter To My Friends Who Signed “Philosophy for Palestine”

These are dark times as multiple crises are erupting around the world while talk of a global conflagration is heard in many circles. These are also times that try human relationships, friendships, and alliances.

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Temptations of Tyranny

Rod Dreher’s conflicted support for President Trump illustrates a broader crisis among intellectual conservatives who fear the "soft totalitarianism" of liberal institutions yet embrace the hard authoritarianism of executive overreach. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s political thought, the essay contends that true freedom is preserved not through charismatic leaders but through the multiplication and decentralization of citizen power. Revitalizing democracy, it argues, requires stubborn, local acts of collective governance rather than the dangerous temptation to concentrate authority in a single figure.

04-27-2025

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Thinking Everything the Worst

The Hannah Arendt Center’s Virtual Reading Group will be finishing our reading of The Origins of Totalitarianism on February 16th and 24th with discussions of the famous Epilogue to the book, "Ideology and Terror." In this epilogue, Arendt argues that the fundamental ground for the rise of totalitarianism is prepared by a specifically modern form of loneliness. In preparation, it would be good to read Lee Siegel’s reflections on American loneliness.

02-03-2024

Thickheaded Evil

Jonathan Cape focuses on how Lyndsey Stonebridge describes the banality of evil, Hannah Arendt’s attempt to understand Adolf Eichmann’s kind of evil, what allowed him to become a key participant in the extermination of six million Jews. The Hannah Arendt Center Virtual Reading Group will begin reading Eichmann in Jerusalem in March. You can view the schedule here.

02-03-2024

Our Crisis of Disempowerment

Phillip K. Howard offers an Arendtian understanding of our current predicament, based on the phenomenon of disempowerment. As Arendt famously wrote, “Bureaucracy is the form of government in which everybody is deprived of political freedom, of the power to act; for the rule of Nobody is not no-rule, and where all are equally powerless we have a tyranny without a tyrant.”

01-27-2024

The Looming Biden-Trump Rematch

"Deep divisions in the United States are not new; indeed, they can be traced back to the Constitutional Convention and the days of John Adams versus Thomas Jefferson. But according to some scholars, they have rarely reached the levels seen today, when Red and Blue Americas are moving farther and farther apart geographically, philosophically, financially, educationally and informationally."

01-27-2024

"The Zone Of Interest"/The Banality of Evil

Alissa Wilkinson reviews the new Jonathan Glazer film, The Zone of Interest, which is a full-on exploration of Hannah Arendt’s thinking around the banality of evil. Wilkinson writes, "In The Zone of Interest, characters don’t talk about murder or genocide, [and their] internal distance through the movie’s images and sounds. The result is unsettling in the extreme . . . the nauseating shock packs a stronger punch than any horror movie I’ve seen this year."

01-27-2024

American Jewish Peace Archive: An Interview with Arthur Samuelson

HAC is proud to sponsor The American Jewish Peace Archive, a repository of interviews with U.S. and Israeli Jews who have advocated for self-determination for Jews and Palestinians. Organized by oral historian Aliza Becker, the Archive seeks to explore the diversity of Jewish thought on Israel. Today, we share an excerpt from a conversation with Arthur Samuelson, who served as Assistant Editor for the Israeli peace magazine New Outlook in the mid '70s.

01-20-2024

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Totalitarianism in the Bathtub

Lyndsey Stonebridge's surprising, wonderful, and novel new biographical tale of Arendt’s life and thinking, We Are Free To Change The World is not your typical biography. It offers a quirky, original, serious, and humane inquiry into Arendt’s work and her continuing relevance in our world.

01-20-2024

Featured

American Jewish Peace Archive: An Interview with Robert K. Lifton

HAC is proud to sponsor The American Jewish Peace Archive, a comprehensive repository of over 200 interviews with U.S. and Israeli Jews who have advocated for self-determination for Jews and Palestinians. Organized by activist and oral historian Aliza Becker, the Archive seeks to explore the plurality of Jewish thought on Israel. Today, we share an excerpt from a conversation with Robert K.Lifton, who served as President of the American Jewish Congress from 1988-1994.

01-13-2024

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Rebuilding Trust

Jedediah Britton Purdy writes that democracy depends on trust, but the fracturing world of experts and the loss of authority suffered by nearly all institutions means that trust is dispersed, politicized, and weaponized. : How can we rebuild common institutions of trust? His answer: “We need to practice nondefensively meeting serious disagreement—and proceeding to the rest of the human being.”

01-13-2024