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An original and revolutionary interpretation of the Jews' destiny in modern politics.
Is the Shoah a unique event or just one of the many genocides that have occurred (and continue to occur) in modern history? In The Democratic Ideal and the Shoah, Shmuel Trigano begins with the hypothesis that the Shoah must be understood in both universal and singular terms: insofar as it addresses the meaning and value of modernity, it is solely because the singular experience of the Jews is at its center. Drawing on history, political philosophy, hermeneutics, and psychoanalysis, Trigano argues that the attitude of democracy towards the Jews is key to understanding the very nature of democracy and the democratic ideal, and he postulates that the anti-Semitism that has haunted modern times is the same spectre that has haunted democracy throughout history in the form of nationalism, totalitarianism, and now multiculturalism. Can democratic theory rid itself of the dilemma between universality and particularity, between collectivity and individuality? This is the ultimate question addressed by this book.
"…requires knowledge of both the Holocaust and political theory, but advanced students of both will find Trigano's approach enriching … Highly recommended." — CHOICE
Introduction A Reversal in Perspective
Part 1 The Jew-of-the-Citizen
1. Naked Singularity in the Shoah
2. The Unthinkable Singularity
3. The All-Too-Thinkable Shoah
4. The Unthought Singularity
5. The "Universal" Narrative of Singularity
6. Democracy’s Jewish Question: Sartre and Arendt
Part 2 The Man-of-the-Citizen
7. The Enigma of the Democratic Man
8. The "Crime of Being Born": The Obscenity of the Native Condition of Men
9. The Hidden Religion of Modernity
10. The Memory Controversy as a Decoy
Part 3 The Jew-of-the-Man: The Singular and the DemocraticUniversal
11. The Enigma of Jewish Singularity
12. The Enigma of the "People"
13. Toward a New Age in Democracy?
Notes
Index