Benhabib (political science and philosophy, Yale U.) offers a philosophical reassessment of the works of Hannah Arendt, identifying two strands of her thought as owing competing allegiances to the works of Walter Benjamin and her onetime lover, Martin Heidegger. This competition allows us, she argues, to "think with Arendt against Arendt." More sympathetic to the Benjamin strain, she argues that Arendt differed from Heidegger in important ways because of her position as a German Jewish woman attempting to understand the rise of totalitarianism. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)