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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

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. 

  • Image for The Radical Politics of Joy
    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.

    READ MORE
  • Image for Civil Disobedience and the Spirit of American Democracy
    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.

    READ MORE
  • Image for Temptations of Tyranny
    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.

    READ MORE
  • Image for An Open Letter To My Friends Who Signed “Philosophy for Palestine”
    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.

    READ MORE
Featured Article

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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Featured

One of my Students Responds

Roger Berkowitz

My former student and current Arendt Center employee, Tobias Hess, asked to write about his feelings of unease about my characterization of some student protests for Palestine on college campuses. Like many students and non-students, and like myself, Hess is moved deeply by the plight of seemingly excessive destruction by Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza.
12-02-2023
Featured

To Think About Horror in Serious Ways

Roger Berkowitz
David Marchese interviews writer and veteran Phil Klay on the humanity and inhumanity of war. Klay finds the humanity of war in its moral complexity, the struggle to see and acknowledge the reality of morally complex thinking that goes beyond ideological and partisan positions.
12-02-2023
Featured

A Young Jew Looks to Gaza

Tobias Hess
The student movement for Palestine has been largely characterized as naive, and often, anti-semitic. But Tobias Hess, former HAC student-fellow and current employee of the Center, argues that the student movement is indicative of a sincere and understandable outrage. This is especially true for young Jews who, he says, feel betrayed by the "promise of Jewish self-determination [which has] spiraled into craven, narrow minded nationalism."
12-01-2023
Article, Featured

A Non-Ideological Thinking

Roger Berkowitz
In a speech at The Federalist Society last week, Bari Weiss points out the many similarities between what happened in Israel on October 7, and what happened in New York City and Washington DC. on September 11, 2001. 
11-19-2023
Featured

Citizens’ Assemblies and Beyond

Roger Berkowitz
I spent Friday and Saturday at the Hannah Arendt Center's Democracy Innovation Workshop: Citizens' Assemblies and Beyond. The workshop gathered scholars, organizers, and government officials in New York City to learn about and explore how to use deliberative democratic innovations At a moment when hope is a rare word, the growing interest in citizen assemblies offers real possibilities for a revival of empowered citizenship and meaningful self-government. 
11-12-2023
Featured

The Letter Wars
 

Roger Berkowitz
The horrific war in the Middle East has unleashed a paper war of public letters, where academics, artists, and students sign letters and statements supporting one side or the other. One thing is clear, signing these letters is popular. Instead of thinking for oneself, articulating one’s own views, and making an argument, signatories to such letters simply join a collective statement that demands little of them intellectually or politically.
11-04-2023
Featured

Ideological Politics From Nazism and Communism to Settler Colonialism

Roger Berkowitz
Many of the leftwing defenses of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel justify the attack as a response to settler colonialism. Those on the far left opposing settler colonialism embrace indigenous peoples as the political subject of the future. It seems important, therefore, to look further into the idea of indigeneity and the ideology of settler colonialism.
10-28-2023
Featured

Friendship and Humanity v.s. The Orgy of Truth Telling

Roger Berkowitz
At the end of my talk introducing the Friendship and Politics conference last week, I posed a simple question: Can an Israeli and a Gazan be friends?  Is it even conceivable at this point that Israelis can come to talk to a Gazan who votes for and defends Hamas, a movement that for decades has sought the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews, and who supports the October 6th flood of torture and murder that Hamas terrorists unleashed on Israeli civilians? 
10-22-2023

Politics of Absolutism from Gaza and Jerusalem to Harvard and Tik Tok

Yuval Harari
War is the continuation of politics by other means. Many people recite this mantra, but too few pay it enough attention. With the massacre Hamas perpetrated in Israel and the mounting civilian casualties in Gaza, the deep logic of war is hidden by the immense human misery it produces. As the bodies keep piling up, who will win this war? The side that achieves its political aims.
10-22-2023
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