Hannah Arendt and the Negro Question

"Hannah Arendt: political progressive and committed anti-racist theorist? Think again. As Kathryn Gines makes inescapably clear, for Arendt the "Negro" was the problem, whether in the form of savage "primitives" inseparable from Heart-of-Darkness Africa, social climbers trying to get their kids into white schools, or unqualified black university students dragging down academic standards. Gines' boldly revisionist text reassesses the German thinker's categories and frameworks."—Charles W. Mills, Northwestern University

"Takes on a major thinker, Hannah Arendt, on an important issue—race and racism—and challenges her on specific points while raising philosophical and methodological shortcomings."—Richard King, Nottingham University

"Gines carefully moves through Arendt scholarship and Arendt's texts to argue persuasively that explicit discussions of the 'Negro question' point up the limitations of her thinking."—Kelly Oliver, Vanderbilt University

"Gines has delivered an intellectually challenging book, that presents one of the most important figures in Western philosophy of the 2nd half of the 20th century in a different and, perhaps, somewhat less favorable perspective."—Philosophia

"On the whole, Hannah Arendt and the Negro Question offers a wealth of research that will be valuable to scholars and graduate students interested in how racial bias operates in Arendt's major works. Gines's writing style is lucid and to the point, and her engagement with secondary sources is comprehensive."—Hypatia