What makes a story, good? Is there any such thing as a "true story" (cf. Lucian)? What about a story about real problems--problems that underlie the discursive fashions of the day? What makes a story really great--not merely in scope, but in depths? Berkhofer's volume ignores these and akin questions. He prefers to roll back into contemporary "discourse" or groundless (!) talk, as if there were nothing more urgent and important--nay, meaningful--for scholars (including historians) to discuss than the surface of literally empty talk--a talk that, no doubt, is of Great interest to many, arguably precisely because of its emptiness--of its superficiality, its mildly sophisticated utter lack of depths.



It is legitimate to suspect that the author has never studied (read: taken seriously) any reasoned-out book written before the modern birth of "Ideology," i.e. the modern "politicization" of philosophy. No serious thought is given to the possibility that reality is not exhausted by historical (material) appearances. What ancient/classical sources would regard as key to any good history--namely a keen understanding of the permanent/central problems of political life, carrying with it a capacity to make superficial concessions to the fashion or spirit of the times--disappears in the "beyond" welcomed by our author, a "beyond" filled with means seemingly awaiting existential Nothingness as their unquestioned, tyrannical End.



ON METHODOLOGY:

The problem we are all faced with--in Berkhofer's company--is that of ends. Berkhofer seems to assume that the best critical stance rests upon a prejudice against all ends: all ends must be groundless (i.e. there is no end by nature--hence the "Cartesian" sense of certainty that means must be attended to before and independently of ends). Socratic or zEtetic inquiry (openness to truth/reality as a natural end) is ignored in favor of a considerably more fashionable dialogue open to nowhere. The ultimate "Great Story" beyond all not-so-great stories is NIHILISM. The price to be paid for loss of true greatness (think of Thucydides, for instance) is dire.



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One reviewer defends Berkhofer's volume by invoking "the pace of erudition," which reads as a codeword for "Progress". Red lights flash for "Grand Narrative" (or "Great Stories").