Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought) - Softcover

Koselleck, Reinhart

Softcover

ISBN 10: 026261068X ISBN 13: 9780262610681

Publisher: MIT Press, 1990

Synopsis

In these fifteen essays, one Of Germany's most distinguished philosophers of history invokes an extraordinary array of witnesses and texts to explore the concept of historical time. The witnesses include politicians, philosophers, theologians, and poets, and the texts range from Renaissance paintings to the dreams of German citizens in the 1930s. Using these remarkable materials, Koselleck investigates the relationship of history to language, and of language to the deeper movements of human understanding.

About this title

Review

"Koselleck turns the procedures of 'conceptual historiography' to the study of the concept of history itself, (providing) original, erudite, and illuminating insights into concepts that have informed the modern idea of historical being: event, chance, progress, revolution, modernity... Koselleck's work augurs a new era in the conceptualization not only of what 'history' means to Western culture but also of what Western culture means for 'history.'" --Hayden White, American Historical Review

About the Author

Reinhart Koselleck is Professor of the Theory of History at the University of Bielefeld and author of Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time.

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 026261068X
• ISBN 13: 9780262610681
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 356