Arendt, Natality and Biopolitics

Demonstrating how Hannah Arendt is the 'unacknowledged basis' for a great deal of contemporary continental philosophy, from Foucault to Agamben to Esposito and Nancy, this masterful book on Arendt’s work is both long overdue and just in time. Rigorous, detailed, and creative, Arendt, Natality and Biopolitics by Rosalyn Diprose and Ewa Ziarek, carefully shows how Arendt’s most innovative analyses – of the 'force of movement', biopolitics (avant la lettre), and natality – are obscured, denied or criticised by critics who absorb her insights, fail to credit them, or mischaracterise them. This book goes a long way to setting things right, showing how Arendt’s work, especially on the key concept of natality, speaks to today’s concerns more than ever. We are all in the authors’ debt. -- Bonnie Honig, Brown University
Diprose and Ziarek give us a powerful defence of reproductive rights when this has never before been more necessary. The book is a tour-de-force, beautifully written and powerfully argued. It is a must read for activists and theoreticians who have been seeking new ways to defend reproductive freedom. -- Drucilla Cornell, Emeritus Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University