Modern

Hannah Arendt

1906–1975

Theorist of totalitarianism

She attended the Eichmann trial and made a phrase, the banality of evil, that her critics still argue with. The line about compliance under terror is from the earlier book on totalitarianism. She noticed the few who do not go along, and did not romanticize how many there are.

In the canon

  1. Under conditions of terror most people will comply but some people will not.Eichmann in Jerusalem

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