Two titans of twentieth-century thought: their lives, loves, ideas, and politics.Shaking up the content and method by which generations of students had studied Western philosophy, Martin Heidegger sought to ennoble man’s existence in relation to death. Yet in a time of crisis, he sought personal advancement, becoming the most prominent German intellectual to join the Nazis.Hannah Arendt, his brilliant, beautiful student and young lover, sought to enable a d...

Harry Hill stars as the Governor in this BBC Radio 4 prison-based sitcom‘Properly funny’ Miranda Sawyer, The ObserverThe Egg is Britain's remotest and highest-security prison, floating on a giant prehistoric egg in the middle of the ocean. Running the place is Governor Harry who, along with his trusty assistants Anne and Peter, does his best to keep the inmates under control – while dreaming of a transfer to the cushy Spar...

Ten full-cast dramas featuring some of the best known names in British comedy.In these ten witty, dark and disturbing episodes some of Britain’s best comedians come together to perform simultaneously hilarious and unsettling stories that will have you gripped. Sticky situations on ski slopes, placating an unruly ghost, a boy stuck at the bottom of well and an unusual adventure weekend with romantic overtones - are just some of the scenarios from comedy writers Mark...

Arendt was one of the most important thinkers of her time, famous for her idea of "the banality of evil" which continues to provoke debate. This collection provides new and startling insight into Arendt's thoughts about Watergate and the nature of American politics, about totalitarianism and history, and her own experiences as an émigré.Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview and Other Conversations is an extraordinary portrait of one of the twentieth century's ...

This searing memoir of the author's concentration camp experience "is the autobiography of an extraordinarily acute conscience" ( Newsweek)."Whoever has succumbed to torture can no longer feel at home in the world."At the Mind's Limits is the story of one man's incredible struggle to understand the reality of horror. In five autobiographical essays, Amery describes his survival—mental, moral, and physical—through the enormity of t...

“A skilled exploration” of why 6 notable 20th-century philosophers—from Martin Heidegger to Michel Foucault—succumbed to “a narcissistic embrace of totalitarian politics” (The Washington Post).European history of the past century is full of examples of philosophers, writers, and scholars who supported or excused the worst tyrannies of the age. How was this possible? How could intellectuals whose work depends on freedom defend those who would deny it? Here,...

Ever since the Second World War and the Holocaust, historians, psychologists and theologians alike have attempted to explain how a single personality could bring about some of the greatest horrors of the modern era. Ron Rosenbaum's Explaining Hitler investigates the meanings and motivations people have attached to Hitler and his disturbing policies - and whether or not he believed his own doctrines - and explores the continuing fascination with the nature of evil. The book also do...

Although Hannah Arendt is not primarily known as a Jewish thinker, she probably wrote more about Jewish issues than any other topic. When she was in her mid-twenties and still living in Germany, Arendt wrote about the history of German Jews as a people living in a land that was not their own. In 1933, at the age of twenty-six, she fled to France, where she helped to arrange for German and eastern European Jewish youth to quit Europe and become pioneers in Palestine.During her years ...

Nietzsche remains one of the most influential philosophers of our time and this book is the definite guide to his philosophy. Whether you're a philosophy student struggling with phrases like 'the superman' and 'the will to power', or whether you simply want to understand more about the life and work of this fascinating man, this easy-to-navigate guide will help you to demystify Nietzsche's influential ideas and discover his legacy to modern thought.NOT GOT MUCH TIME?One, fi...

This highly original book is the first to explore the political and philosophical consequences of Hannah Arendt's concept of 'the banality of evil,' a term she used to describe Adolph Eichmann, architect of the Nazi 'final solution.' According to Bernard J. Bergen, the questions that preoccupied Arendt were the meaning and significance of the Nazi genocide to our modern times. As Bergen describes Arendt's struggle to understand 'the banality of evil,' he shows how Arendt redefined the mean...

During the Allied bombing of Germany, Hitler was more distressed by the loss of cultural treasures than by the leveling of homes. Remarkably, his propagandists broadcast this fact, convinced that it would reveal not his callousness but his sensitivity: the destruction had failed to crush his artist's spirit. It is impossible to begin to make sense of this thinking without understanding what Wolf Lepenies calls The Seduction of Culture in German History.This fascinating and...

Incoherent, obsessive and violent, Hitler's ideas nonetheless found an audience of millions and led to one of the most horrific and devastating conflicts of the 20th century. Taking two of Hitler's texts as his starting point, Neil Gregor discusses 'this second-rate mind of great power' and helps the reader to understand the nature and popular reception of Hitler's crude but hugely influential writings.