Online: Adult Book Discussion: "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil"

This event is ONLINE only.  Join the staff at the Grand Concourse Library as we discuss, "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil," by Hannah Arendt.  Arendt argues that the idea that the Nazi criminals were manifestly psychopathic and different from "normal" people was wrong.  According to her, the high-ranking Eichmann showed "no case of insane hatred of Jews, of fanatical antisemitism or indoctrination of any kind. He personally never had anything whatever against Jews."  Get a copy of the book from your local library.  (Read the first two chapters by clicking the title above.)  On the day of the program, a link to discuss the book will be sent to you.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was a German-American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.  A German Jew, Arendt was arrested for a brief period by the Gestapo before fleeing Germany in 1933.  After living in a series of European countries, she made her way to the U.S. in 1941.  She settled in New York, which remained her principal residence for the rest of her life.   With the publication of "The Origins of Totalitarianism" in 1951,  she cemented her reputation as a major thinker and writer.

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