Arendt's Solidarity - (Cultural Memory in the Present) by David D Kim

About the Book

"Hannah Arendt's work inspires many to stand in solidarity against authoritarianism, racial or gender-based violence, climate change, and right-wing populism. But what if a careful analysis of her oeuvre reveals a darker side to this intellectual legacy? What if solidarity, as she conceives of it, is not oriented toward equality, freedom, or justice for all, but creates a barrier to intersectional coalition building? In Arendt's Solidarity, David D. Kim illuminates Arendt's lifelong struggle with this deceptively straightforward yet divisive concept. Drawing upon her publications, unpublished documents, private letters, radio and television interviews, newspaper clippings, and archival marginalia, Kim examines how Arendt refutes solidarity as an effective political force against anti-Semitism, racial injustice, or social inequality. As Kim reveals, this conceptual conundrum follows the arc of Arendt's forced migration across the Atlantic and is directly related to every major concern of hers: Christian neighborly love, friendship, Jewish assimilation, Zionism, National Socialism, the American republic, Black Power, revolution, violence, and the human world. Kim places these thoughts in dialogue with dissenting voices, such as Thomas Mann, Gershom Scholem, Jean-Paul Sartre, James Baldwin, Frantz Fanon, James Forman, and Ralph Ellison. The result is a full-scale reinterpretation of Arendt's oeuvre"--

Book Synopsis

Hannah Arendt's work inspires many to stand in solidarity against authoritarianism, racial or gender-based violence, climate change, and right-wing populism. But what if a careful analysis of her oeuvre reveals a darker side to this intellectual legacy? What if solidarity, as she conceives of it, is not oriented toward equality, freedom, or justice for all, but creates a barrier to intersectional coalition building?

In Arendt's Solidarity, David D. Kim illuminates Arendt's lifelong struggle with this deceptively straightforward yet divisive concept. Drawing upon her publications, unpublished documents, private letters, radio and television interviews, newspaper clippings, and archival marginalia, Kim examines how Arendt refutes solidarity as an effective political force against anti-Semitism, racial injustice, or social inequality. As Kim reveals, this conceptual conundrum follows the arc of Arendt's forced migration across the Atlantic and is directly related to every major concern of hers: Christian neighborly love, friendship, Jewish assimilation, Zionism, National Socialism, the American republic, Black Power, revolution, violence, and the human world. Kim places these thoughts in dialogue with dissenting voices, such as Thomas Mann, Gershom Scholem, Jean-Paul Sartre, James Baldwin, Frantz Fanon, James Forman, and Ralph Ellison. The result is a full-scale reinterpretation of Arendt's oeuvre.

Review Quotes

"In sharing Arendt's Solidarity with the world, David Kim has effectively sown the seeds for a fresh conversation on the highlights and limitations of political solidarity--and all scholars are invited to weigh in. There is always space at the Arendtian table for those who dare to think about and imagine a better world."--Sanjana Rajagopal, Society for U.S. Intellectual History

"Arendt's Solidarity is a key read for Arendt scholars, political theorists, and literary and cultural historians interested in Arendt as a transatlantic writer whose work has lasting relevance for understanding our contemporary political moment."--Cosima Mattner, German Studies Review

"Kim raises legitimate questions about Arendt's work and personal life to show that even today, 50 years after her death, she is still a controversial work in progress. In seeking to answer these questions, the author exercises a broad command of Arendt's works, letters, and personal diaries. Recommended."--A. M. Mayer, CHOICE

"An intentionally provocative and controversial thinker, Hannah Arendt has long been deployed, revered or demonized according to the issues and intellectual currents of the day. David D. Kim's Arendt's Solidarity offers a well-researched, highly critical reassessment of her life and oeuvre that is grounded in contemporary progressive perspectives and pieties."--Steven E. Aschheim, Times Literary Supplement

"Arendt's Solidarity brings clarity to both Arendt's lifelong preoccupation with the problem of solidarity and the question of how we should think about solidarity. A major achievement." --Rahel Jaeggi, Humboldt University of Berlin

"Kim adeptly traces the evolution of Arendt's thinking from Augustinian love to her views on assimilation and beyond, highlighting her enduring focus on solidarity. As Kim illuminates, Arendt's oversights about black rage, decolonial love, and settler colonialism underscore her limitations." --Priscilla Layne, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Kim's book is perfectly suited for our age, examining both the insights and limits of Arendt's reflections on solidarity. A pleasure to read, Arendt's Solidarity is an elegant intervention executed at levels which most scholars only dream of attaining." --Samuel Moyn, Yale University

"This erudite and ambitious book offers an impassioned and rigorously documented account of 'how we read Arendt now.'" --Michael P. Steinberg, Brown University

About the Author

David D. Kim is Professor in the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies and Associate Vice Provost of the International Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Cosmopolitan Parables: Trauma and Responsibility in Contemporary Germany (2017).