From totalitarianism to the tradition: Hannah Arendt and Karl Marx on history, politics and philosophy

This dissertation is a study of Hannah Arendt's writings on Karl Marx from the years 1951-1956. In 1951 Hannah Arendt received a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation to work on a project titled Totalitarian Elements in Marxism. The dissertation follows and critically analyzes both the content and the trajectory of Arendt's project from its inception as a study of how the thought of Karl Marx could be used for totalitarian domination to its eventual emphasis on Marx in relation to the tradition of Western political thought.;The study is divided into three parts. Part one is a general examination of the project from its inception until its eventual abandonment as a free standing and unified project. Part two looks at the Marx writings that most correspond to the original intent of the project, totalitarian elements in Marxism. Part three examines the Marx writings from the perspective of her transformed project, Marx and the tradition of Western political thought.;I conclude that although much of Arendt's critique of Marx is flawed, there are important critiques of Marx imbedded within Arendt's writings that offer suggestions for rethinking Marxism and Marxian projects.