Structure

Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem” is separated into fifteen chapters. The structure of the book is somewhat loose and disorganized. The author often included several topics, people and time frames within the same paragraph. Her use of information contained within parentheses in the middle of another topic is distracting and confusing. This information would have better served the reader had they been listed as notes.

There is no chronological order to the story. It tends to go back and forth from recent times to years before and then onto another time. Once becoming accustomed to this rather disjointed structure, it is easier to follow when knowing to expect quick changes in topics and timeframes. In a series of chapters, the author provides a more orderly description of how the various European countries dealt with the orders of the Fuhrer to implement the Final Solution.

It is...