A review by _dilliam_william
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt

challenging dark informative slow-paced

3.0

Now I don’t mean to sound crude by calling a book about the Holocaust a ‘tough read,’ but this was a very dense book to parse through.

The majority of the book was written as a set of individual articles and that shows in the very complex way the book is laid out. It is not arranged chronologically as it is structured around the different arguments followed by the trial.

I think this book is a relevant piece of research in understand the Nazi regime and the ways in which bureaucracies can function to dilute and obfuscate guilt. However, it is a very complex mix of journalism, historiography, philosophy, and analysis of international law. I’m unsure how to classify the book and I found the mix of approaches quite confusing.

Overall, I found this book an important read that I will be thinking about for a long time. Just go in prepared for the heavy subject matter and the complicated layout.