Hannah Arendt came to the United States as a refugee from the racial persecution and racial genocide being practiced by the totalitarian regime in Germany and eventually became an American citizen. This experience continued to influence her view of the U.S. political system. And although, toward the end of her life, she leveled harsh criticism against specific political practices, Arendt never altered her fundamental agreement with the principles of the American Constitution and the political perceptions upon which these were based. Her entire political thought can be understood as an attempt to contrast and even reconcile the basic principles of the American political system with European, above all German, traditions. In this attempt, she was guided by the principles of classic American political thought that she discerned in the ideas of the Founding Fathers.

In a letter to Karl Jaspers, dated January 29, 1946, one of the very first letters of their renewed correspondence following the Second World War, Hannah Arendt tried to explain her view of the United States to her former teacher.