Hannah Arendt was a German-born American political philosopher who is widely considered one of the most important political thinkers of the 20th century.

Arendt is best known for The Origins of Totalitarianism which details her study of the Nazi and Stalinist regimes including the evils of anti-Semitism, imperialism, and racism. Her work generated a wide-ranging debate on the nature and historical antecedents of the totalitarian phenomenon. She followed this with The Human Condition in 1958 now thought of as her most important philosophical work. Arendt published a number of influential essays on topics such as the nature of revolution, freedom, authority, tradition and the modern age.