The Trial That Never Ends

"The essays in The Trial That Never Ends are interesting, readable, and offer fresh takes on the ongoing controversy surrounding Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem." -- Lida Maxwell, Associate Professor of Political Science, Trinity College "The Trial That Never Ends provides a comprehensive and definitive account of the true historical and philosophic meaning of Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem. The essays respond to many of the charges levelled in recent years against Arendt and her work. We come to see that Eichmann in Jerusalem was not only a valiant attempt to grapple with the horrific past; it also peered prophetically into the evils that lurked ahead for the Jewish people, the state of Israel and indeed for civilization itself." -- Nalin Ranasinghe, Professor of Philosophy, Assumption College

The contributors gathered together by Richard J. Golsan and Sarah M. Misemer in The Trial That Never Ends assess the contested legacy of Hannah Arendt’s famous book and the issues she raised.

The fiftieth anniversary of the Adolf Eichmann trial may have come and gone but in many countries around the world there is a renewed focus on the trial, Eichmann himself, and the nature of his crimes. This increased attention also stimulates scrutiny of Hannah Arendt’s influential and controversial work, Eichmann in Jerusalem.

The contributors gathered together by Richard J. Golsan and Sarah M. Misemer in The Trial That Never Ends assess the contested legacy of Hannah Arendt’s famous book and the issues she raised: the "banality of evil", the possibility of justice in the aftermath of monstrous crimes, the right of Israel to kidnap and judge Eichmann, and the agency and role of victims. The contributors also interrogate Arendt’s own ambivalent attitudes towards race and critically interpret the nature of the crimes Eichmann committed in light of newly discovered Nazi documents. The Trial That Never Ends responds to new scholarship by Deborah Lipstadt, Bettina Stangneth, and Shoshana Felman and offers rich new ground for historical, legal, philosophical, and psychological speculation.