The informers : Hannah Arendt's appraisal of Whittaker Chambers and the ex-Communists
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology
Publication Date
1-1-2014
Volume
1
Issue
1
First Page
35
Last Page
66
Keywords
Hannah Arendt, Whittaker Chambers, Communism, informing, Arthur Koestler
Abstract
By the time that Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism was published in 1951, one totalitarian regime lay in ruins while another – Soviet Communism – stood newly reenergized. Stalin's prestige, burnished by victory, had never been greater. The cold war was re-dividing the world. And, in the United States, the fear of Communism was a pervasive feature of the political landscape. The revelation that the State Department and other government ministries, in the 1930s and beyond, had been penetrated by American Communists, prompted public outrage against the miscreants. It aroused corresponding curiosity about those who had once embraced the Marxist creed but who now publicly renounced it. One such person was Whittaker Chambers (1901–1961) – Communist spy, Communist defector, and key witness in the perjury trial of Alger Hiss. Into this imbroglio stepped Hannah Arendt. She was by turns suspicious and dismissive. Who were the ex-Communists? Why had they broken with Communism? How thorough or deep-rooted was their abrogation? On her account, Chambers and others like him had no understanding of democratic politics and of what it means to be a quotidian political actor. She also denounced ‘ex-Communist’ informing as analogous to the exposure practices of totalitarian regimes. This article evaluates the cogency of her analysis. It devotes particular attention to a problematic distinction Arendt draws between ‘ex-Communists’ and ‘former’ Communists. And it seeks to answer a question that Arendt left opaque: when, if ever, is informing against fellow citizens justified in a constitutional republic?
DOI
10.1080/23254823.2014.909734
Print ISSN
23254823
E-ISSN
23254815
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2014 European Sociological Association
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Baehr, P. (2014). The informers: Hannah Arendt's appraisal of Whittaker Chambers and the ex-Communists. European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 1(1), 35-66. doi: 10.1080/23254823.2014.909734