"This outstanding collection of essays explores Hannah Arendt's thought against the background of recent world-political events unfolding since September 11, 2001, and engages in a contentious dialogue with one of the greatest political thinkers of the past century, with the conviction that she remains one of our contemporaries. Themes such as moral and political equality, action and natality, and judgment and freedom are reevaluated with fresh insights by a group of thinkers who are themselves well known for their original contributions to political thought. Other essays focus on novel and little-discussed themes in the literature by highlighting Arendt's views of sovereignty, international law and genocide, nuclear weapons and revolutions, imperialism and Eurocentrism, and her contrasting images of Europe and America. Each essay displays not only superb Arendt scholarship but also stylistic flair and analytical tenacity"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Arendt on the foundations of equlaity / Jeremy Waldron -- 2. Arendt's Augustine / Roy T. Tsao -- 3. The rule of the people: Arendt, archê, and democracy / Patchen Markell -- 4. Genealogies of catastrophe: Arendt on the logic and legacy of imperialism / Karuna Mantena -- 5. On race and culture: Hannah Arendt and her contemporaries / Richard H. King -- 6. Banishing the sovereign? Internal and external sovereignty in Arendt / Andrew Arato and Jean Cohen -- 7. The decline of order: Hannah Arendt and the paradoxes of the nation-state / Christian Volk -- 8. The Eichmann trial and the legacy of jurisdiction / Leora Bilsky -- 9. International law and human plurality in the shadow of totalitarianism: Hannah Arendt and Raphael Lemkin / Seyla Benhabib -- 10. In search of a miracle: Hannah Arendt and the atomic bomb / Jonathan Schell -- 11. Hannah Arendt between Europe and America: optimism in dark times / Benjamin R. Barber -- 12. Keeping the republic: reading Arendt's On Revolution after the fall of the Berlin Wall / Dick Howard -- 13. Are Arendt's reflections on evil still relevant? / Richard Bernstein -- 15. Banality reconsidered / Susan Neiman -- 15. The elusiveness of Arendtian judgment / Bryan Garsten -- 17. Existential values in Arendt's treatment of evil and morality / George Kateb.