The Freedom to Be Free

In 1966, at a conference in Toronto, Hannah Arendt gave a lecture that cut through the political debates of its moment to ask a question that has only become more pressing since: what does freedom actually mean, and how do we distinguish genuine political freedom from its many available counterfeits — freedom to consume, freedom from want, freedom from interference?

Arendt’s answer draws on the ancient Greek conception of politics as a space of genuine action — as distinct from the administration of economic life — and argues that modern politics has largely lost sight of this distinction, reducing the political to the management of necessity and thereby destroying the condition under which genuine freedom is possible.

This Penguin Little Black Classic makes one of Arendt’s most essential essays available in a beautiful pocket edition — ideal for readers approaching her work for the first time, and essential for those who already know The Origins of Totalitarianism and The Human Condition. Urgent, precise, and completely contemporary. Published by Penguin.