Moishe Postone Research Articles

Review Essay: Mourning Humanism, or, the Idiom of Haunting

Postmodernism’s critique of modernism [as a misguided positivism] is well-taken; unfortunately, postmodernism does not offer a viable independent alternative to modernism. As a perspective founded primarily on critique and opposition, postmodernism is always parasitic on that which it critiques. In presenting a world where public discourse is nothing but deceit, postmodernism precludes the possibility of any community whatsoever.

Catastrophe and Meaning: The Holocaust and the Twentieth Century (review)

Catastrophe and Meaning: The Holocaust and Twentieth Century, by Moishe Posrone and Eric Santner. Chicago and London. University of Chicago Press, 2003. 272 pp. $25.00. Catastrophe and Meaning an exceptionally important and useful compilation of essays that revisit and sometimes rethink critical issues connected with our understanding of Holocaust and German History. It result of November 1998 conference at University of Chicago that focused on four central debates regarding scholarly approaches to Holocaust. The text reflects this fourfold division: History, Antisemitism and Holocaust; The Holocaust and Twentieth Century; Annihilation, Victimhood, Identity; and Trauma and Limits of Representation. Postone and Santner's introduction makes it clear that while focus of book Holocaust, meaning of Jewish destruction has wide implications for understanding later acts of genocide. The authors' introduction suggests these events asthe'birth' of this mutation of human possibilities, and of its relation to general historical processes in twentieth century (p. 7). Saul Friedlander and Shulamit Volkov deal with aspects of implementation of Final Solution. Friedlander focuses on what he calls redemptive anti-Semitism (as) . . . most radical form of anti-Jewish hatred (p. 18), which had apocalyptical dimensions. This becomes point of departure for convergence theory about Holocaust. Volkov likewise suggests that Nazi policy is tangled web of interaction between ideology and praxis (p. 42). Friedlander disputes idea that Nazis were modern and had Utopian goals. Rather, he prefers to refer to specificity of Nazi laws which separated Aryans and Jews as an obsession which indicative that the Jewish issue was its ideological core (p. 21). Anson Rabinbach's focus rethinking of Zygmunr Baumans thesis about Holocaust and modernity. The author sees more an era that witnessed substitution of administrative regularity for moral responsibility. Rabinbach asks question of why so many German Jewish intellectuals defended thesis while rejecting more German-centered view of Nazism as deviation from western traditions. Hannah Arendt, Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Gunther Anders, and Jean Amery, it pointed our, all concurred that Auschwitz was 'caesura' in civilization (p. 58), rather than something inherent in modernity itself. Rabinbach concludes that arguing for uniqueness of Holocaust implies certain normalcy to other genocides, which suggests that full understanding of Holocaust may be found only by analyzing other genocides. Dan Diner and Moishe Postone continue on course that suggests need to understand context of German history and exceptional period in which it occurred. Diner notes that Nazi anti-Bolshevism was different from other types of anti-communist ideology because it became connected with race. The practical aspects of mass murder of Jews, linked to German plans for territorial expansion as well as decision to implement T-4euthanasia program, may be subsumed under general idea of nation building rather than particular antisemitic policy directed only against Jews. Postone argues that modern atinsemitism did nor define Jews ultimately as an inferior race, rather as an antirace. For Postone, this antisemitism was particularly dangerous because it defined Jews by intangible concepts. Postone also suggests German antisemitism was involved with a biologization of capitalism, derived from an understanding of dispersed nature of Jews. The Nazi anti-capitalist revolt was therefore also revolt against perceived power of Jews and their invisibility. Omer Bartov's and Frank Trommler's articles deal with different forms of memory. Bartov indicates how different countries remembered World War I. …

Travels in Moishe Postone's Social Universe: A Contribution to a Critique of Political Cosmology

Travels in Moishe Postone's Social Universe: A Contribution to a Critique of Political Cosmology

Envisioning Capitalism: Geography and the Renewal of Marxian Political Economy

This paper offers a reinterpretation of what critical theorist Moishe Postone calls ‘the fundamental core of capitalism’. In so doing, it seeks to lay a set of theoretical foundations for a renewed Marxian political economy in geography, at a time when Marxism has been eclipsed as a leading critical paradigm within the discipline. The argument works on two fronts simultaneously. On the one hand, the ongoing hegemony of economic and political neo‐conservatism is occluding the violent realities of a capitalist world economy behind the anodyne logics of free‐market theory. These realities suggest the continued relevance of, and need for, a strong Marxian critique of political economy. But on the other hand, Marxism has been reprimanded by its erstwhile allies on the Left of geography for being too ‘modern’ and too capital‐ and class‐centred. In light of this double challenge, the paper seeks to develop a ‘both/and’ Marxism for geography that can chart a third way between the antinomies of modern and after‐modern modes of theorizing capitalism and class. A project of ‘envisioning capitalism’ is suggested on this basis, which combines the ‘power’ of modern theory with the epistemological reflexivity of after‐modern theory. At the same time, capitalism and class are rethought at an ontological level and shown still to be essential features of the fin‐de‐millennium world, but far less closed and hegemonic than is suggested by modern modes of Marxism. Finally, a return to a class politics of redistribution is suggested, but in a way that draws in more recent Left geographical concerns with identity, difference and recognition.

The Historical Limit of Workers' Protest: Moishe Postone, Krisis and the “Commodity Logic”

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BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:Manufacturing Knowledge: A History of the Hawthorne Experiments by Richard GillespieManaging Innovation and Change: People, Technology and Strategy by Jon ClarkManaging Employee Involvement and Participation by Jeff Hyman and Bob MasonEmployee Participation in Europe by Herman KnudsenWork and Employment in Europe by Peter Cressey and Bryn JonesThe Economics of the Trade Union by Alison L. BoothLabour Economics, Volumes 1–IV, by Orley C. Ashenfelter and Kevin F. Hallock. Edward ElgarThe Conservative Party and the Trade Unions by Peter DoreyAn Atlas of Industrial Protest in Britain, 1750–1990 by Andrew Charlesworth, David Gilbert, Adrian Randall, Humphrey Randall and Chris WrigleyTime, Labor and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory by Moishe Postone

Time, Labor, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory. Moishe Postone

<i>Time, Labor, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory</i>. Moishe Postone

Review essay : A Marx for our time? Moishe Postone's reading of Capital

Review essay : A Marx for our time? Moishe Postone's reading of Capital

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: The American Grocery Store: The Business Evolution of an Architectural Space, by James M. Mayo. (Contributions in American History, No. 150). Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1993, 304 pages. Cloth, $59.95 Supermarkets Transformed: Understanding Organizational and Technological Innovations by John P. Walsh. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1993, 184 pages. Cloth $36.00. The Agricultural and Food Sector in the New Global Era, edited by Alessandro Bonanno. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 1933, 203 pages. Paper, $12.95. Gay Cops, by Stephen Leinen. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1993, 245 pages. Cloth, $22.95. The Death of Meaning, by George V. Zito. London and Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993, 162 pages. Cloth, $49.95 For Democracy: The Noble Character and Tragic Flaws of the Middle Class, by Ronald M. Glassman, William H. Swatos, Jr., and Peter Kivisto. (Contributions in Sociology, No. 105.) Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1993, 174 pages. Cloth, $49.95. AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame, by Paul Farmer. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, 338 pages. Paper; $13.00. Paying the Piper: Causes and Consequences of Art Patronage, edited by Judith Huggins Balfe. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993, 336 pages. Paper. Thinking Critically About Research on Sex and Gender, by Paula J. Caplan and Jeremy B. Caplan. New York: Harper Collins, 1994, 125 pages. Paper, $10. Bourdieu: Critical Perspectives, edited by Craig Calhoun, Edward LiPluma, and Moishe Postone. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1993, 288 pages. Cloth, $49.95; paper, $16.95. Provisional Irish Republicans: An Oral and Interpretive History, by Robert W. White. (Contributions in Political Science, No. 309.) Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993, 206 pages. Cloth, $55.00. Risky Business: The Political Economy of Hollywood, by David F. Prindle. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993, 189 pages. Cloth, $49.95. The Constant Flux: A Study of Class Mobility in Industrial Societies, by Robert Erikson and John H. Goldthorpe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, 429 pages, Paper, $19.95. Social Theory and Social Policy: Essays in Honor of James S. Coleman, edited by Aage B. Sbrensen and Seymour Spilerman. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993, 272 pages. Cloth, $59.95. Painful Inheritance: Health and the New Generation of Fatherless Families, by Ronald J. Angel and Jacqueline L. Angel. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993, 264 pages. Cloth, $52.00; paper, $19.95

Time, Labor, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory.Moishe Postone

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsTime, Labor, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory. Moishe Postone Bob JessopBob Jessop Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 99, Number 4Jan., 1994 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/230379 Views: 11Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1994 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Noel Castree Envisioning Capitalism: Geography and the Renewal of Marxian Political Economy, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 24, no.22 (Jun 1999): 137–158.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-2754.1999.00137.x

Time, Labour, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory. By Moishe Postone. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 424p. $49.95.

Time, Labour, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory. By Moishe Postone. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 424p. $49.95.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Garbage, the City and Death: Renewed Antagonisms in the Complex Relationship between Jews and Germans in the Federal Republic of Germany

On December 17, 1985 about 40people gathered at the Centerfor European Studies to hearpresentations on various aspects of the controversy surrounding the Fassbinderplay, Garbage, the City and Death, (Der Midll, die Stadt und der Tod). The event was sponsored by two of the Center's study groups: The Jews in Modem Europe Study Group and The German Study Group. The immediate contextfor this seminar was set by the incident and its aftermath in the late spring of 1985. Observers on both sides of the Atlantic were disturbed by the actions and statements of President Reagan and Chancellor Kohl and were disappointed by the concomitant lack of protest on the part of much of the West German Left. Two ofthe panel members in the CES roundtable contributed to this inter-continental debate. Moishe Postone's essay Bitburg und die Linke, published in Pflasterstrand onJune 1, 1985 and Andrei S. Markovits' letter Ein offener Brief an die deutsche Linke: Kliglich versagt appearing in die tageszeitung on May 9, 1985, both elicited lively and varied responses andfanned theflames ofcontroversy