Why McCarthyism was familiar to Hannah Arendt
Clip: 6/27/2025 | 2m 1sVideo has Closed Captions
Hannah Arendt was teaching at Berkeley when McCarthyism took hold of the United States.
Hannah Arendt was teaching at Berkeley when McCarthyism took hold of the United States. She found the outrage, fear and chilling effect similar to her experiences in 1930s Germany: “They are introducing police methods, they name names, and in this way, the informant system is being integrated into the society.”
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Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo...
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Why McCarthyism was familiar to Hannah Arendt
Clip: 6/27/2025 | 2m 1sVideo has Closed Captions
Hannah Arendt was teaching at Berkeley when McCarthyism took hold of the United States. She found the outrage, fear and chilling effect similar to her experiences in 1930s Germany: “They are introducing police methods, they name names, and in this way, the informant system is being integrated into the society.”
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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- [Speaker 1] No sooner has Arendt found a place in the world, no sooner has she unleashed her understanding of totalitarianism on the world, McCarthyism takes hold in the United States.
It's very familiar, what is going on.
- One communist on the faculty of one university is one communist too many.
(audience cheering) - [Speaker 2] Arendt was actually teaching at Berkeley, and she talks about how the academic environment on campus was chilled.
How people were afraid to laugh in public or to make jokes, or just to speak freely.
- [Speaker 3] Can you see how far the disintegration has gone and with what breathtaking speed it has occurred?
And up to now hardly any resistance.
The whole entertainment industry and to a lesser extent the universities have been dragged into it.
(solemn music) It all functions without any force, without any terror.
They're introducing police methods.
They name names, and in this way, the informant system is being integrated into the society.
- [Speaker 4] One element that she sees unfolding is the threat to denaturalize naturalized citizens.
Heinrich Blucher, who had been a communist in Germany, was quite worried as well.
- [Heinrich] It seems that one can now deprive someone of citizenship with a simple denunciation, and in my case, absolutely nothing could stop it.
- I think they're correct.
- [Heinrich] American citizenship could, it seems to me, become the most worthless in the world at a stroke.
- Whether they're American or alien born.
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Preview: 6/27/2025 | 2m | Discover Hannah Arendt, one of the most fearless political writers of modern times. (2m)
Hannah Arendt’s reflections on being a refugee
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Clip: 6/27/2025 | 1m 15s | Hannah Arendt became a stateless person in 1933 upon fleeing Germany to France. (1m 15s)
How Hannah Arendt developed the concept of "the banality of evil"
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Clip: 6/27/2025 | 3m 40s | Hannah Arendt came up with the concept of “the banality of evil” during the trial of Adolf Eichmann. (3m 40s)
What sparked Hannah Arendt's ideas behind "The Origins of Totalitarianism"
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Clip: 6/27/2025 | 2m 50s | Hannah Arendt came up with ideas for “The Origins of Totalitarianism” while observing Hitler. (2m 50s)
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Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo...