Modernity and the Holocaust

by Bauman, Zygmunt; Bauman, Zygmunt (AFT)

• ISBN13: 9780801487194
• ISBN10: 0801487196
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

Sociology is concerned with modern society, but has never come to terms with one of the most distinctive and horrific aspects of modernity - the Holocaust. The book examines what sociology can teach us about the Holocaust, but more particularly concentrates upon the lessons which the Holocaust has for sociology. Bauman's work demonstrates that the Holocaust has to be understood as deeply involved with the nature of modernity. There is nothing comparable to this work available in the sociological literature.

Author Biography

Zygmunt Bauman is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction: Sociology after the Holocaust	1	(30)
The Holocaust as the test of modernity	6	(6)
The meaning of the civilizing process	12	(6)
Social production of moral indifference	18	(6)
Social production of moral invisibility	24	(3)
Moral consequences of the civilizing process	27	(4)
Modernity, Racism, Extermination I	31	(30)
Some peculiarities of Jewish estrangement	33	(4)
Jewish incongruity from Christendom to modernity	37	(4)
Astride the barricades	41	(1)
The prismatic group	42	(4)
Modern dimensions of incongruity	46	(6)
The non-national nation	52	(4)
The modernity of racism	56	(5)
Modernity, Racism, Extermination II	61	(22)
From heterophobia to racism	62	(4)
Racism as a form of social engineering	66	(6)
From repellence to extermination	72	(5)
Looking ahead	77	(6)
The Uniqueness and Normality of the Holocaust	83	(34)
The problem	85	(3)
Genocide extraordinary	88	(5)
Peculiarity of modern genocide	93	(5)
Effects of the hierarchical and functional division of labour	98	(4)
Dehumanization of bureaucratic objects	102	(2)
The role of bureaucracy in the Holocaust	104	(3)
Bankruptcy of modern safeguards	107	(4)
Conclusions	111	(6)
Soliciting the Co-operation of the Victims	117	(34)
`Sealing off' the victims	122	(7)
The `save what you can' game	129	(6)
Individual rationality in the service of collective destruction	135	(7)
Rationality of self-preservation	142	(7)
Conclusion	149	(2)
The Ethics of Obedience (Reading Milgram)	151	(18)
Inhumanity as a function of social distance	155	(2)
Complicity after one's own act	157	(2)
Technology moralized	159	(2)
Free-floating responsibility	161	(2)
Pluralism of power and power of conscience	163	(3)
The social nature of evil	166	(3)
Towards a Sociological Theory of Morality	169	(32)
Society as a factory of morality	170	(5)
The challenge of the Holocaust	175	(4)
Pre-societal sources of morality	179	(5)
Social proximity and moral responsibility	184	(4)
Social suppression of moral responsibility	188	(4)
Social production of distance	192	(6)
Final remarks	198	(3)
Afterthought: Rationality and Shame	201	(50)
Social Manipulation of Morality: The European Amalfi Prize Lecture	208	(14)
The Duty to Remember-But What?: Afterword to the 2000 Edition	222	(29)
Notes	251