Acknowledgments

If I had known how hard it would be to write this book, I never would have started. Fortunately, I was inspired from the start by a total lack of realism. In Homeric terms: if Odysseus was most loved by Athena, and Paris was most loved by Aphrodite, the goddesses who love me most are Hope and Delusion. To them I am profoundly grateful.

I owe more than I can say to J. Hillis Miller, Jacques Derrida, Andrzej Warminski, Shoshana Felman, and Juliet Flower MacCannell. Many others also read early versions of this book and freely offered insight and encouragement. I am especially grateful to Rodolphe Gasché, Karsten Harries, Paul Kottman, Sam Zeitlin, Jennifer Forsyth, John Ronan, and Julie Park. Words of gratitude seem inadequate to their generosity.

Arendt has been the subject of a vast secondary literature, without which I could not have written this book. My debts are too numerous to list here; in the footnotes I try to show how much I owe previous writers on Arendt. Heartfelt gratitude to all.

This book was born of research supported by the Strauss Family Foundation, to whom I am deeply grateful.

I would especially like to thank my brother, Michael, who supported and encouraged me without fail for many, many years, and without whom this book might never have seen the light of day.

Above all, I am grateful to Deep Springs College. This book is dedicated to its students and friends.