In "1984" - written in 1948 and published a year later - Orwell presupposes a gigantic historical catastrophe that renders his world unrecognizable.

The cosmic debris of historical catastrophes floats by.

Many of these scenes are piercingly evoked, and the novel is so spacious in design and reach, so sensitive to historical catastrophe, that it seems churlish to bridle.

In recent years - perhaps the turning point was "Schindler's List" - films about the Holocaust have undergone a noticeable change in tone toward a redemptive, even hopeful reckoning with historical catastrophe.

Rules of the Nautical Road was a naval training film geared towards officers that recreated a historical catastrophe, which was meant to encourage officers to study nautical rules and principles.

Throughout her seven decades of work, Golahny explored the place of humanity in the infinite universe, and expressed empathy for people caught up in historical catastrophe.

Accounts of survival, that is, are both representative and anomalous; they at once record this all but unimaginable historical catastrophe and, without intentional mendacity or inaccuracy, distort it.

"The Ministry of Special Cases" lives up to its title: its characters are so sweet, so literary in antecedent, that they seem exceptions to the grim rules of historical catastrophe.

We should remember them with the greatest reverence, just as we should remember the many other victims of that historical catastrophe.

America may be the common destination, but the hardships that lead people to come here range from everyday adversity to historical catastrophe.