We are free to change the world.

Lindsay Stonebridge

This bold new look at the life and ideas of political philosopher Hannah Arendt explores her lessons for living in an age of uncertainty.

"Convincing and authentic" Observer

"A captivating new biography... impressive." ECONOMIST

"Refreshing and profound" FINANCIAL TIMES

The violent anxieties that pervade today's world were all too familiar to Hannah Arendt. Authoritarianism, occupation, disillusionment, post-truth politics, conspiracy theories, racism, mass immigration, and the banality of evil: she lived it all.

Born in the first decade of the last century, Arendt fled fascist Europe to build a new life for herself in America, where she became one of the world's most influential and controversial public intellectuals. She wrote about power and terror, exile and love, and above all, freedom. Questioning—thinking—was her first defense against tyranny. In place of the forces of darkness and madness, she posited a politics of pluralism, spontaneity, and defiance. Arendt taught that to love the world meant finding the courage to protect it.

Lindsay Stonebridge's passionately and powerfully written book, We Are Free to Change the World, illuminates Arendt's life and work and her urgent dialogue with our turbulent present. It invites each of us to think in our own way, as Hannah Arendt did—steadily, lovingly, and defiantly—through our unpredictable times.