Eichmann in Jerusalem
Arendt's report on the trial of Adolf Eichmann and her famous, furiously contested verdict: the banality of evil.
The Verdict
The most argued-over book ever written about the Holocaust, and the source of a phrase the whole world now uses. Reporting on the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt advanced a thesis that has never stopped provoking: that the man who organised the deportations was not a snarling monster but a thoughtless functionary, and that this 'banality of evil' was the more terrifying truth. The book also condemned aspects of Jewish leadership under the Nazis, igniting a furious controversy that still burns. Essential, infuriating, and far more nuanced than the slogan it spawned.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The origin of the 'banality of evil' argument
- A contested thesis to wrestle with
- A foundational text of Holocaust thought
- The Eichmann trial and its meaning
Look elsewhere if you want
- A first, narrative history of the Holocaust
- A settled account
- Comfort or consensus
Why We Rated It 4.5
Historical Context
Hannah Arendt covered the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem for The New Yorker; the book appeared in 1963. Its central idea — the 'banality of evil' — and its critical remarks on the wartime Jewish Councils made it among the most controversial works on the Holocaust ever published.
Criticisms & Debates
The book drew fierce criticism on two fronts: that Arendt was taken in by Eichmann's self-presentation as a mere bureaucrat — later scholarship, notably Bettina Stangneth's, argued he was a far more committed antisemite — and that her treatment of the Jewish Councils was unjust. Defenders maintain her larger point about bureaucratic complicity stands. The argument is unresolved and ongoing.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Collector's Corner
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0143039884
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Other Books About the Same Events
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does 'the banality of evil' mean?
- Arendt's idea that Eichmann's monstrous acts came not from fanatical hatred but from thoughtless, careerist obedience — making the evil, in her view, all the more chilling.
- Why is the book so controversial?
- Both for its portrait of Eichmann, which later scholars challenged, and for its criticism of the wartime Jewish Councils, which many found deeply unfair.