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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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What we are Reading: Black Americans
By Roger BerkowitzNikole Hannah-Jones is well aware that she is “part of the first generation of black Americans in the history of the United States to be born into a society in which black people had full rights of citizenship.” She writes that while “Black people suffered under slavery for 250 years; we have been legally “free” for just 50.” And she believes that “in that briefest of spans, despite continuing to face rampant discrimination...
08-19-2019
The American Algerians
By Roger BerkowitzIt is well known that Richard Wright found in Paris the freedom he never found as a black man in America. Maybe less well known is that that James Baldwin, in his essay, “Alas, Poor Richard,” accused Wright, as Adam Shatz observes, “of celebrating Paris as a “city of refuge” while remaining silent about France’s oppressive treatment of its colonial subjects.”
08-19-2019
Tough Talks
By Charlotte AlbertThis week, we republish a QotW essay from one of our current students here at Bard College.
In our current political climate, media has exacerbated and publicized social tensions. Mostly these are tensions that have always existed but have not always been issues of large-scale public contention. The proliferation of mass media has led to increased political divisiveness...
08-19-2019
What We're Reading:
Thinking
By Samantha HillLiane Carlson writes about thinking for The Revealer, and what happens when we lose faith in thinking as scholars. Echoing Hannah Arendt’s critique of academic thinking, and those who rank among the professional thinkers, Carlson emphasizes the communal nature of thinking as an activity that we engage in, while reflecting on the declining state of academia today.
08-19-2019
Editing
By Samantha HillMagdalena Edwards offers a brilliant account of her experience translating Clarice By Lispector in the LA Review of Books. Navigating the unmarked side streets of publishing, Edwards walks readers through the process of translation while thinking about the gray line between editing and ideas, who gets credit for their work, and who gets thanked for devotion.
08-19-2019
What We're Reading
This week, we're reading Thomas Chatterton Williams on The Great Replacement 08-17-2019
Authoritarianism Around the World
By Roger BerkowitzWith all the craziness going on here in the United States, it is sometimes hard to remember to pay attention to the world. But a number of essays this week remind us that the revolt against elite norms and elite institutions is a worldwide phenomenon. Siddhartha Deb writes about the decision of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party in India to revoke the special status of Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state in India.
08-12-2019
An Interview with Uday Mehta
Zelda May Bas interviews Uday Mehta as part of the Hannah Arendt Center dinner and lecture series, "The Courage to Be." This video was first recorded in 2015.08-12-2019
Gaffes on the Campaign Trail
By Roger BerkowitzJoe Biden made news with another racial gaffe when he said “We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.” John McWhorter argues that these gaffes, while problematic, are also indicative of a paradoxical tension around black achievement.
08-11-2019