Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room: A Philosophy Primer for an Anxious Age

Jonathan Foiles

Book cover for Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room: A Philosophy Primer for an Anxious Age
Book cover for Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room: A Philosophy Primer for an Anxious Age

Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room: A Philosophy Primer for an Anxious Age

Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room: A Philosophy Primer for an Anxious Age

Jonathan Foiles

View full details

Description

Anxiety may be the defining feeling of our current era, and though it affects many people on a deeply personal level, the last few years have also witnessed the rise of more communal feelings of dread and unknowing, problems that sometimes seem too big to face. Will the United States remain a democracy? Can we still have meaningful lives amid the rubble of late capitalism and the inevitable creep of climate change? How do we even start to grapple with a problem so large it seems to pervade almost every corner of our lives?

In Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room, Jonathan Foiles, a licensed psychotherapist and lecturer at the University of Chicago's Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, explains how philosophy can help us respond to these deep questions and communal worries about modern life. Read how Søren Kierkegaard can speak to feelings of helplessness in the face of police violence, how Hannah Arendt can help us rethink the seemingly unavoidable problem of a warming planet, and how social advocates like Jane Addams and Dorothy Day can offer hope and resolve in a world that sometimes seems like it's already ended.

Thoughtful, discerning, personal, and accessible, Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room will serve as a concise companion for anyone looking to address our cultural unease and find new ways to face it together.

Critical Reviews

"Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room presents itself as a philosophical primer in an age of apocalyptic anxiety, breathing fresh life into the work of thinkers as diverse as Martin Heidegger and Dorothy Day, Hannah Arendt and Aristotle. But this is no ordinary primer. It is at its core an eloquent coming-of-age story, the spiritual memoir of a gifted teacher and psychotherapist--written with candor and grace. Foiles balances a therapist's modesty and empathy with fierce political passion, this book is a welcome summons to individual hope matched by collaborative action. this is a book good for the soul." --Roger Ferlo, Scholar in Residence, The Newberry Library, Chicago; President Emeritus, Bexley Seabury Seminary Federation

Chicago Review of Books selected Reading Arendt in the Waiting Room as one of 12 Must-Read Books for December, 2024.

Selected as one of December 2024's "Must Read" books.

Publishing Information

Publisher: Belt Publishing
Pub date: 2024-12-03
Length: 160 pages

The Allstora Membership

Membership Perks:

  • Save 30% on all online store purchases
  • Exclusive access to author's content
  • You pay less, but authors still earn double

Membership Terms:

First Month: $0.00
Monthly price: $5.00
  • To access membership discount simply log in and add to cart, discount applied automatically.
  • One month free trial, cancel anytime. Membership renews on the 15th of each month.