The Life of the Mind was the final work of Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), and was unfinished at the time of her death. Designed to be in three parts, only the first two had been completed and the first page of the third part was in her typewriter the evening of the day she suddenly died. The unfinished work was edited by her friend, author Mary McCarthy, and published in two volumes in 1977 and 1978.

Hannah Arendt was a German-American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.