Hard Political Texts

Welcome to college. It’s time to read difficult texts. Slowly. We are bombarded with huge amounts of written text, which we read quickly and absorb thinly. In this class we do the opposite. We will read page-by-page, paragraph-by-paragraph, even line-by-line. We will read them together and discuss each passage with care and in detail. It is rare to read this deeply and learn from each other in this way. But college is the moment to do it – to learn how to do it and then carry that skill with you through life. We will read The Art of Translation by Walter Benjamin, On the Common Saying ‘This May Be True in Theory, But it Does Not Apply in Practice,’ Immanuel Kant, On The Jewish Question by Karl Marx and Lying in Politics by Hannah Arendt.