Hannah Arendt lived and worked through the nadir of the 20th century, fleeing Germany in 1933 and living as a stateless person until 1951 when she became a US citizen. Arendt addresses some of the most difficult issues of human existence – the nature of conscience, the problem of evil, life in the public arena, and totalitarianism. The questions she posed speak to us today with special urgency. Whether she was asking what it means to be a woman, a Jew, a stateless person, or a citizen, her curiosity and intellectual rigor lead to ambiguous, complex, passionate ideas that will engage everyone in the class.