Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) is the author of "The Origins of Totalitarianism," "The Human Condition," "On Violence," and "Eichmann in Jerusalem," among numerous other books and essays. Liliane Weissberg is Joseph B. Glossberg Term Professor in the Humanities and is a professor of German and comparative literature and chair of the Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania.