I have a dear friend who grades every meal he eats outside of his home and has tracked such meals for decades in a little notebook. His meals rarely earn less than an A. The question is just how many pluses will follow the A. It is then a notebook of A’s to A+++++’s. I behave similarly with books I read. It is unusual that the latest one I read is not my new favorite. But in rare instances I become a bit obsessed with one of these favorites. These favorites are rarely perfect books in style or content, instead they are books that for some reason linger throughout the days and weeks following my reading them. They are books I find myself referencing both in my own thoughts and in conversation with others. Wolfram Eilenberger’s The Visionaries is such a book.
From the outset it is hard to avoid being drawn in by the very the premise of Eilenberger’s book. The Visionaries is about four extraordinary political thinkers: Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Ayn Rand and Simone Weil. In a rich and sometimes intimate intellectual history covering the tumultuous period between 1933 and 1943, Eilenberger shares how and why the work of four very different women came to dominate much of 20th century thinking. Eilenberger deftly narrates how each of these women understand the distinctions between individual and collective responsibility and how they very differently understood and responded to the same historical moment. Who am I and what do I owe to others in these vexed times? What Eilenberger also wonderfully illuminates is how, despite the hopelessness of the times, these four theorists shared a certain radical hope—an ability to imagine an alternative future for themselves and the world. I can’t say I fully support where this hope ultimately leads them, but it is hard not to admire their commitments and the tenacity with which they pursued them.
There are three specific attributes that make this a very good and indeed important read. First, and most simply, it is about the critical importance of a circle of 20th century women thinkers. Enough said. Second, it illustrates what it means to be human in time of unimaginable brutality. Eilenberger shares how each of the women boldly responded to the historical moment and how it affected their lives personally. Each made costly commitments. Third, it almost reads like a novel. As an avid reader of fiction, anything with a strong narrative is a huge plus. But the novel-like qualities are a result of the rich context within which Eilenberger situates each thinker. I am an ardent Arendt fan and have read her over and over. Her exile is well known. But how that exile impacted her thought and her aspirations as a human were entirely new to me. But we see here how Arendt knew in a visceral, concrete, and palpable way what it meant to be stateless. Reading Eilenberger’s account has me reading her political thought now in a more valanced manner.
The book is not, however, without flaws. While not typical of the tradition of intellectual history, I would have dearly loved a bit of original thought and synthesis in the form of an explicit introduction and conclusion. The way Eilenberger weaves together these four lives is admirable but I still missed some summary structure. Further — and I am likely quibbling here — but I do think Weil received preferential treatment. With good reason, Eilenberger is clearly taken by her life and writing. She is a thinker many are just now discovering, so he is not alone. But here, like in accounts of other recent authors, he tends to fetishize Weil’s quirky behavior and the extremeness of her positions. It is the place that Eilenberger seems to insert himself the most. Indeed, he explicitly urges his readers to engage with Weil’s writing. Nonetheless, The Visionaries is definitely a great read, especially for anyone who aspires to a better more just world.
