Skip to main content

Time’s Reasons

Philosophies of History Old and New

This original work caps years of thought by Leonard Krieger about the crisis of the discipline of history. His mission is to restore history’s autonomy while attacking the sources of its erosion in various "new histories," which borrow their principles and methods from disciplines outside of history. Krieger justifies the discipline through an analysis of the foundations on which various generations of historians have tried to establish the coherence of their subject matter and of the convergence of historical patterns.

The heart of Krieger’s narrative is an insightful analysis of theories of history from the classical period to the present, with a principal focus on the modern period. Krieger’s exposition covers such figures as Ranke, Hegel, Comte, Marx, Acton, Troeltsch, Spengler, Braudel, and Foucault, among others, and his discussion involves him in subtle distinctions among terms such as historism, historicism, and historicity. He points to the impact on history of academic political radicalism and its results: the new social history. Krieger argues for the autonomy of historical principles and methods while tracing the importation in the modern period of external principles for historical coherence.

Time’s Reasons is a profound attempt to rejuvenate and restore integrity to the discipline of history by one of the leading masters of nineteenth- and twentieth-century historiography. As such, it will be required reading for all historiographers and intellectual historians of the modern period.

209 pages | 6.00 x 9.00 | © 1989

History: General History, History of Ideas

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
1. The History of Critical History: Early Testimony
2. Historism: The Early History of Coherent History
3. The History of Nineteenth-Century Historical Coherence
4. Historicism
5. Historiographical Coherence in the Twentieth Century
Epilogue: A Responsive Motif
Notes
Index

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press