The Human Condition.

ARENDT, Hannah [David Riesman].

Item Number: 99869

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958.

First edition of this work of striking originality. Octavo, original cloth. From the library of David Riesman, with his stamp to the front free endpaper. Riesman was a sociologist, educator, and best-selling commentator on American society and author of the classic work The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Includes a unsigned letter by Riesman to the author of a review of the book. A nice example with noted provenance, linking these two intellectual giants.

In her study of the state of modern humanity, Hannah Arendt considers humankind from the perspective of the actions of which it is capable. The problems Arendt identified then—diminishing human agency and political freedom, the paradox that as human powers increase through technological and humanistic inquiry, we are less equipped to control the consequences of our actions—continue to confront us today.