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12 - Genealogies of Modern Violence: Arendt and Imperialism in Africa, 1830–1914

from Part III - Warfare, Colonialism and Empire in the Modern World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2020

Louise Edwards
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Nigel Penn
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Jay Winter
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
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Summary

This chapter interrogates Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) to better understand the violence of European imperialism in Africa and its impact on later developments, including the Holocaust. It argues that most readers have failed to properly understand Arendt’s own views of temporality and causation in popular appropriations such as the so-called “boomerang thesis.” Instead, the insights of African historiography and critical theory are used to propose a new reading of Arendt that reveals the contingency and counterintuitive turns of modern violence.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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