People of the Dark Ages

Author: Hannah Arendt (USA)
Translator: Wang Lingyun
United States/America
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: This collection is a series of biographical essays titled "Portraits," featuring many of Hannah Arendt's contemporaries and friends who, like her, experienced and witnessed the suffering and hardships of Europe during World War II. The essays include: "Thinking Lessing—On People of the Dark Times" (Arendt's speech upon receiving the Hamburg Lessing Prize in 1959), "Rosa Luxemburg 1871–1919," "Karl Jaspers," "Isaac Deissman 1885–1963," "Walter Benjamin 1892–1941," "Randall Jarrell 1914–1965," "Hermann Broch 1886–1951," "Waldemar Gurian," and others. These writings reflect the author's sharp and incisive insight into the world and human nature, while also conveying a deep affection born from understanding. Even in the dark times, we have the right to expect an illumination (light), one that may not come from theory or concepts but rather from an uncertain, flickering, and often faint glow. This light originates from certain men and women, from their lives and works, which, in almost all cases, ignite and scatter light across the full extent of their earthly existence. Eyes long accustomed to darkness can hardly tell whether these lights are the glow of candles or the brilliance of sunlight. But such an objective judgment seems secondary to me, and thus I can rest assured leaving it to future generations. — Hannah Arendt