The Angel of History: Rosenzweig, Benjamin, Scholem (Cultural Memory in the Present)

In The Angel of History, Moses looks at three philosophers-Franz Rosenzweig, Walter Benjamin, and Gershom Scholem-who formulated a new vision of history informed by Jewish messianism in 1920s Germany. In The Angel of History, Mosès looks at three Jewish philosophers--Franz Rosenzweig, Walter Benjamin, and Gershom Scholem--who formulated a new vision of history in 1920s Germany by moving away from the spirit of assimilation and the Enlightenment belief in humanity's inevitable progress. Instead, they imagined history as discontinuous, made of moments that form no totality but whose ruptures are both more significant--and more promising--than any apparent homogeneity. Their direct experience of the twentieth century's great upheavals led these three thinkers to abandon the old models of causality that had previously accounted for human experience, and their cultural and religious background allowed them to turn to the Jewish experience of history. Jewish messianism always had to confront the experience of catastrophe, deception, and failure. Mosès shows how this tradition informed a genuine Jewish conception of history in which redemption may--or may not--occur at any moment, giving a new chance for hope by locating utopia in the heart of the present. --From publisher's description Franz Rosenzweig : The Other Side Of The West -- Dissimilation -- Hegel Taken Literally -- Utopia And Redemption -- Walter Benjamin : The Three Models Of History -- Metaphors Of Origin : Ideas, Names, Stars -- The Aesthetic Model -- The Angel Of History -- Gershom Scholem : The Secret History -- The Paradoxes Of Messianism -- Kafka, Freud, And The Crisis Of Tradition -- Language And Secularization. Stéphane Mosès ; Translated By Barbara Harshav. Originally Published In French In 1992 Under The Title L'ange De L'histoire: Rosenzweig, Benjamin, Scholem, C1992, Editions Du Seuil--t.p. Verso. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [183]-193). Franz Rosenzweig : the other side of the West Dissimilation Hegel taken literally Utopia and redemption Walter Benjamin : the three models of history Metaphors of origin : ideas, names, stars The esthetic model The angel of history Gershem Scholem : the secret history The paradoxes of messianism Kafka, Freud, and the crisis of tradition Language and secularization. In The Angel of History, Mosès looks at three philosophers—Franz Rosenzweig, Walter Benjamin, and Gershom Scholem—who formulated a new vision of history informed by Jewish messianism in 1920s Germany.