"crises of the republic" was the third of arendt's anthologies, and as the subtitle "lying in politics, civil disobedience, on violence, thoughts on politics and revolution" indicates, consists of four interconnected essays on contemporary american politics and the crises it faced in the 1960s and 1970s. the first essay, "lying in politics" looks for an explanation behind the administration's deception regarding the vietnam war, as revealed in the "pentagon papers". "civil disobedience" examines the opposition movements, while the final "thoughts on politics and revolution" is a commentary, in the form of an interview on the third essay, "on violence".