Choice Reviews Online · 1995 · 343 citations · 0 references
HumanitiesHistoryLiteratureHistoriographyIntellectual HistoryLiterary CriticismApocalyptic LiteratureHolocaust StudiesApocalyptic ContextApocalyptic InterpretationEveryday Life DepictionEveryday Life NarrativesHolocaust Historiography
Apocalyptic thinking, according to Bernstein, reduces life to a predetermined fate and denies the openness and choice of ordinary experience, challenging our moral, philosophical, and literary interpretations of history. The author seeks to illustrate how the Holocaust exemplifies humanity’s tendency toward foregone conclusions. He selects the Holocaust as a case study to expose this tendency. He argues against portraying the Holocaust as foreordained and warns that passive acceptance of historical or personal victimization leads to a broader acceptance of foregone conclusions in events ranging from biographies to peace accords. The author notes that foreshadowing demeans the richness of everyday life and that his argument extends beyond the Holocaust.
The author's denunciation of apocalyptic thinking provides a moral, philosophical, and literary challenge to the way most of us make sense of our worlds. In our search for coherence, Bernstein argues, we tend to see our lives as moving toward a predetermined fate. This foreshadowing demeans the variety, the richness, and especially the unpredictability of everyday life. Apocalyptic history denies the openness and choice available to its actors. Bernstein chooses the Holocaust as the prime example of our tendency toward foregone conclusions. He argues eloquently against politicians and theologians who depict the Holocaust as foreordained and its victims as somehow implicated in a fate they should have been able to foresee. But his argument ranges wider. From recent biographies of Kafka to the Israeli - PLO peace accords, from campus cultural diversity debates to the Crown Heights riots, Bernstein warns against our passive acceptance of historical or personal victimization.