Krize republiky

The Crisis of the Republic is a collection of four texts in which Hannah Arendt examines the crisis events and developments in political life in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s and how these developments threaten the American (and democratic) form of government in general, or, conversely, how they fit into it. In an introductory essay entitled "Lying in Politics," he analyzes the case of the so-called Pentagon Papers, which exposed the tactics of decision-making at the highest levels of American politics during the Vietnam War, and examines the implications of the transformation of politics, so current today, into a mere arena in which only certain image-building and public relations are done. The second text, which by its very title "Civil Disobedience" refers to an essay by Henry David Thoreau, attempts to analyze various American protest and opposition movements against the backdrop of the democratic legal system and the American tradition of resistance and "association." In a more general study, "On Violence," Arendt raises the issue of the nature, causes, and meaning of violence in the second half of the twentieth century and its relationship to power, politics, and war. Complementing this study is the final interview, "Thoughts on Politics and Revolution." In all of these texts, while Arendt defines and elucidates the contemporary interests and concerns of Americans, her conclusions and message are just as timelessly inclusive of contemporary problems of democratic political systems.