The current obsession with the 'end of the millennium' illustrates the enduring power of the idea of endings. This fascination cannot be simply dismissed as faulty logic, a form of madness, or a primitive survival of childish thinking. Opening a path of understanding between ancient conceptions of meaning and the sceptical predicates of modern science, Awaiting Apocalypse shows how ordinary and extraordinary endings are inherent in the narrative structure of human experience and the sedimentation of that experience as historical meaning.