Few thinkers have addressed the political horrors and ethical complexities of the twentieth century with the insight and passionate intellectual integrity of Hannah Arendt. She was irresistible drawn to the activity of understanding, in an effort to endow historic, political, and cultural events with meaning. Essays in Understanding assembles many of Arendt's writings from the 1930s, 1940s, and into the 1950s. Included here are illuminating discussions of St. Augustine, existentialism, Kafka, and Kierkegaard: relatively early examinations of Nazism, responsibility and guilt, and the place of religion in the modern world: and her later investigations into the nature of totalitarianism that Arendt set down after The Origins of Totalitarianism was published in 1951. The body of work gathered in this volume gives us a remarkable portrait of Arendt's developments as a thinker-and confirms why her ideas and judgments remain as provocative and seminal today as they were when she first set them down. Introduction ix Jerome Kohn ``What Remains? The Language Remains'': A Conversation with Gunter Gaus 1(23) Augustine and Protestantism 24(4) Philosophy and Sociology 28(16) Søren Kierkegaard 44(6) Friedrich von Gentz 50(7) Berlin Salon 57(9) On the Emancipation of Women 66(3) Franz Kafka: A Revaluation 69(12) Foreign Affairs in the Foreign-Language Press 81(25) Approaches to the ``German Problem'' 106(15) Organized Guilt and Universal Responsibility 121(12) Nightmare and Flight 133(3) Dilthey as Philosopher and Historian 136(4) The Seeds of a Fascist International 140(11) Christianity and Revolution 151(5) Power Politics Triumphs 156(2) No Longer and Not Yet 158(5) What Is Existential Philosophy? 163(25) French Existentialism 188(6) The Ivory Tower of Common Sense 194(3) The Image of Hell 197(9) The Nation 206(6) Dedication to Karl Jaspers 212(5) Rand School Lecture 217(11) Religion and the Intellectuals 228(4) Social Science Techniques and the Study of Concentration Camps 232(16) The Aftermath of Nazi Rule: Report from Germany 248(22) The Eggs Speak Up 270(15) At Table with Hitler 285(12) Mankind and Terror 297(10) Understanding and Politics (The Difficulties of Understanding) 307(21) On the Nature of Totalitarianism: An Essay in Understanding 328(33) Heidegger the Fox 361(2) Understanding Communism 363(5) Religion and Politics 368(23) The Ex-Communists 391(10) A Reply to Eric Voegelin 401(8) Dream and Nightmare 409(9) Europe and the Atom Bomb 418(5) The Threat of Conformism 423(5) Concern with Politics in Recent European Philosophical Thought 428