Hannah Arendt's Ambiguous Storytelling - by Marcin Moskalewicz (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Through an original interpretation of Hannah Arendt's historiography, Marcin Moskalewicz reveals an under-acknowledged philosophy of history in her vast and variegated oeuvre, including the historical magnum opus, The rigins of Totalitarianism. Hannah Arendt's Ambiguous Storytelling argues that the key to understanding the fragmentary thought of Arendt is through the speculative and critical dimensions of the philosophy of history. It unravels the essential aporia of Arendt's thinking - the discrepancy between political and historical meaning of events - and proposes its overcoming through aesthetic historical judgment. Reading her approach as "fragmented historiography", the project she was committed to reveals itself as the only credible methodological response to totalitarianism and scientific approach to history, which both function as a retrospective prophecy, erroneously presenting the past as a forecast of the future."--

Book Synopsis

Through an original interpretation of Hannah Arendt's historiography, Marcin Moskalewicz reveals an under-acknowledged philosophy of history in her vast and variegated oeuvre, including the historical magnum opus, The Originsof Totalitarianism.

Hannah Arendt's Ambiguous Storytelling argues that the key to understanding the fragmentary thought of Arendt is through the speculative and critical dimensions of the philosophy of history. It unravels the essential aporia of Arendt's thinking - the discrepancy between political and historical meaning of events - and proposes its overcoming through aesthetic historical judgment. Reading her approach as "fragmented historiography", the project she was committed to reveals itself as the only credible methodological response to totalitarianism and scientific approach to history, which both function as a retrospective prophecy, erroneously presenting the past as a forecast of the future.

A novel contribution to Arendt scholarship, this book will appeal to philosophers of history, political scientists and theorists alike.

Review Quotes

Is Arendt also among the philosophers of history?
In this intriguing study, Moskalewicz not only
distils a historical theory out of Arendt's work
but presents this theory as a key to her oeuvre.
This is a daring book, written with verve, adding
a major new voice to current debates on historical
meaning and representation.
Herman Paul, Professor of the History of the Humanities, Leiden University, the Netherlands

Pondering the perplexing incoherence of The
Origins of Totalitarianism, whose sections on
anti-Semitism and imperialism provide scant
explanation for the causes of totalitarian
politics, Moskalewicz arrives at a provocative
new understanding of Arendt's approach to the
relationship between historical narration and
acting in the present. Embracing inconsistency,
fragmentation, discontinuity and paradox, she
sought a way to tell the stories of the past that
would clear the ground for a radically new future
Martin Jay, Ehrman Professor of European History Emeritus, UC Berkeley, USA

What really impresses me with Moskalewicz is that he opens up a fresh reading of Arendt's writings.
He takes Arendt's argument seriously that after the breach in tradition (for which we only have the words 'Holocaust' or 'Shoah'), no solid scientific research can be done without critically reviewing the methodological presuppositions and consequences of scientific thinking.
Antonia Grunenberg, Professor Emerita, Hannah Arendt Centre, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany

About the Author

Marcin Moskalewicz is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin and Poznan University of Medical Sciences in Poland. Moskalewicz was Marie Curie Fellow at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands, and University of Oxford, UK, EURIAS Fellow at Collegium Helveticum in Zurich, Switzerland, Fulbright Scholar at Texas A&M, USA, and Humboldt Fellow at Heidelberg University, Germany.