Review of Arendt y España de Serrano de Haro, A. Madrid, Editorial Trotta, 2023, 172 pp.

Abstract

Guided by imagination and curiosity, Agustín Serrano de Haro proposes in this book a detailed tour of the relationship between the life and work of the Jewish-German-American thinker and Spain. The book reveals the traces of the author's theoretical-political commitment, either in the form of subtle references in some of her most important works, or as part of his path into exile, based on the discovery of ephemeral -and at the same time more than probable- records. Despite the existence of several well-documented biographies, the recognition of the settings and conditions that surround the philosopher's formative decades, and her deep involvement in the political and cultural morass of the 20th century, are some of the original contributions of the book. After an introductory chapter that sets the scene, the author develops nine chapters that follow the chronology of Arendt's life and work. He focuses on the clues that Arendt left in some of her writings about the "Spanish episode". If chapters one to five follow the thinker's path into exile, the remaining four -which include an afterword- present the traces of Arendt's perspective on Latin America, the schemes of Franco's censorship in her translation into Spanish -with effects on a reading in this language- and the possible interpretations of the Spanish present from its particular conception of politics and modernity. Serrano de Haro gives us a glimpse, with great mastery, of this interweaving in some of Arendt’s most outstanding works, which often goes unnoticed by readers and scholars of her work in the Spanish language.