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Posthistoire: Has History Come to an End?

1994; Wiley; Volume: 33; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/2505387

1468-2303

Jerrold Seigel, Lutz Niethammer, Dirk van Laak, Patrick Camiller,

Literature and Cultural Memory

History, be it Fukuyama's liberal democracy or Baudrillard's hyperreality, according to a number of pundits, has reached of line. Yet these heated debates are themselves profoundly ahistorical, for conception of posthistoire, the of history, has been a recurrent theme since late 19th century. Lutz Niethammer, Germany's leading radical historian, here uncovers this intellectual history of disillusion and resignation. Tracing idea of history's back to Nietzsche and Spengler, he examines its manifestations in views of writers in France and Germany, particularly during interwar years. Many were thinkers of Right; Ernst Junger, Jacques Doriot and Arnold Gehlen. Others, above all Alexandre Kojeve, belonged to Left. But whether they pinned their hopes on nation or proletariat, they shared a common response to failure of masses to fulfil a prescribed role. They all conflated apparent collapse of a particular historical project with collapse of history of itself. A central theme is reaction of intellectual elites to rise of mass culture and crises of mass movements. Niethammer offers an alternative in approach of Walter Benjamin, who, despite his critiques of technological mass civilization, refused to deny fact that people make and transform For all those who stil refuse to believe that human history has ground to a standstill, Posthistoire should be interesting reading. Subject is currently at centre of political and intellectual debate, provoked by publication of Fukuyama's The End of History and Last Man. Will appeal to large general and academic audience built up by Fukuyama's book. This book is first comprehensive left critique of end of history. Will be read by political left, and be required reading of apologists of concept of any political hue.