SOURCE: "Re-reading Hannah Arendt," in Encounter, Vol. LII, No. 3, March, 1979, pp. 73-79.

In the essay below, Laqueur addresses the questions of why Arendt wrote Eichmann in Jerusalem, why it provoked controversy, and "whether, in fact, she was misunderstood and injustice done to her."

Few books in living memory have stirred up more bitter controversy than Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, published in 1964. The controversy still continues as the introduction to a recent collection of Mrs Arendt's "Jewish" essays shows [The Jew as Pariah], albeit without the acrimony of the earlier debate. The editor clearly believes that Mrs Arendt was misunderstood by her critics. The republication of these essays inevitably raises the question what made Mrs Arendt write the book, what it was that provoked so much criticism and whether, in fact, she was misunderstood and injustice done to her.

Hannah Arendt, thirty-five years of age at the time...