Modernity and the Holocaust

Modernity and the Holocaust is a 1989 book by Zygmunt Bauman published by Polity Press. As the title implies, it explores the relationship between modernity and The Holocaust.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

The book has been seen as a criticism of modernity, as one of Bauman's arguments is that it was modernity that led to The Holocaust, and that despite several decades passing, the modernity has not yet come to terms with this tragedy.[1][2]

Contents

Bauman's most famous book, Modernity and the Holocaust, is an attempt to give a full account of the dangers of fear of "the stranger". Drawing upon Hannah Arendt and Theodor Adorno's books on totalitarianism and the Enlightenment, Bauman developed the argument that the Holocaust should not simply be considered to be an event in Jewish history, nor a regression to pre-modern barbarism. Rather, he argued, the Holocaust should be seen as deeply connected to modernity and its order-making efforts. Procedural rationality, the division of labour into smaller and smaller tasks, the taxonomic categorisation of different species, and the tendency to view obedience to rules as morally good, all played their role in the Holocaust coming to pass. He argued that for this reason modern societies have not fully grasped the lessons of the Holocaust; it tends to be viewed—to use Bauman's metaphor—like a picture hanging on the wall, offering few lessons. In Bauman's analysis the Jews became 'strangers' par excellence in Europe.[9] The Final Solution was pictured by him as an extreme example of the attempt made by society to excise the uncomfortable and indeterminate elements that exist within it. Bauman, like the philosopher Giorgio Agamben, contended that the same processes of exclusion that were at work in the Holocaust could, and to an extent do, still come into play today.[10]

Reception

Moishe Postone reviewed the book for the American Journal of Sociology in 1992. He called the book "important and thought-provoking", although he also argued that "several aspects of [Bauman's] book are problematic" or "puzzling". He concluded that despite some issues, the book "represents an important contribution to contemporary sociological thought".[1]

A. Dirk Moses while reviewing Omer Bartov's book Murder in Our Midst: The Holocaust, Industrial Killing, and Representation for the Australian Journal of Politics & History in 2008, noted that Bartov's work has been influenced by Bauman's.[3]

Awards

References
  1. Postone, Moishe (1992). "Review of Modernity and the Holocaust". American Journal of Sociology. 97 (5): 1521–1523. doi:10.1086/229934. ISSN 0002-9602. JSTOR 2781448. S2CID 146976361.
  2. O'Kane, Rosemary H. T. (1997-02-01). "Modernity, the Holocaust and politics". Economy and Society. 26 (1): 43–61. doi:10.1080/03085149700000003. ISSN 0308-5147.
  3. Moses, A. D. (2008-06-28). "Modernity and the Holocaust". Australian Journal of Politics & History. 43 (3): 441–445. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8497.1997.tb01398.x.
  4. Irwin-Zarecka, Iwona (March 1991). "Modernity and the Holocaust". Contemporary Sociology. 20 (2): 216. doi:10.2307/2072918. JSTOR 2072918.
  5. Rechter, Sue (February 1993). "Reviews : Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust (Polity Press, 1989)". Thesis Eleven. 34 (1): 196–202. doi:10.1177/072551369303400116. ISSN 0725-5136. S2CID 145223327.
  6. Hell, Julia (November 2010). "Modernity and the Holocaust, or, Listening to Eurydice". Theory, Culture & Society. 27 (6): 125–154. doi:10.1177/0263276410382026. ISSN 0263-2764. S2CID 145451398.
  7. Best, Shaun (May 2014). "Agency and Structure in Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust". Irish Journal of Sociology. 22 (1): 67–87. doi:10.7227/IJS.22.1.5. ISSN 0791-6035. S2CID 144636976.
  8. Wickham, Gary (December 1991). "Book Reviews : Modernity and the Holocaust: Zygmunt Bauman. Cambridge, Polity, 1989, 224 + xiv pp. £27.50 (hardcover)". The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology. 27 (3): 429–433. doi:10.1177/144078339102700325. ISSN 0004-8690. S2CID 144105235.
  9. Modernity and the Holocaust, p. 53.
  10. Bishara, Azmi (Nov 8, 2019). "Modernity and the Mechanisms of Moral Neutralisation". Arab Center Washington DC. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  11. "Modernity and the Holocaust | Wiley". Wiley.com. Retrieved 2023-03-13.


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