Limits of History
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A01=Constantin Fasolt
Author_Constantin Fasolt
authority
autonomy
bartolus of sassoferrato
Category=NHA
collective identity
discursus novus
early modern
enlightenment
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eternity
europe
free will
freedom
hermann conring
historical method
historiography
history
individual
liberty
meaning
middle ages
modernity
nation
nonfiction
past
philosophy
political theory
politics
renaissance
responsibility
revolution
roman law
self
society
sovereignty
time
truth
Product details
- ISBN 9780226101248
- Weight: 539g
- Dimensions: 17 x 22mm
- Publication Date: 25 Sep 2013
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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History casts a spell on our minds more powerful than science or religion. It does not root us in the past at all, but instead flatters us with the belief in our ability to recreate the world in our image. It is a form of self-assertion that brooks no opposition or dissent and shelters us from the experience of time. So argues Constantin Fasolt in The Limits of History, an ambitious and path-breaking study that conquers history's power by carrying the fight into the center of its domain. Fasolt considers the work of Hermann Conring (1606-81) and Bartolus of Sassoferrato (1313/1457), two antipodes in early modern battles over the principles of European thought and action that ended with the triumph of historical consciousness. Proceeding according to the rules of normal historical analysis-gathering evidence, putting it in context, and analyzing its meaning - Fasolt uncovers limits that no kind of history can cross. He concludes that history is a ritual designed to maintain the modern faith in the autonomy of states and individuals. God wants it - the old crusaders would have said. The truth, Fasolt insists, only begins where that illusion ends.
With its probing look at the ideological underpinnings of historical practice, The Limits of History demonstrates that history presupposes highly political assumptions about free will, responsibility, and the relationship between the past and the present.
Constantin Fasolt is professor of history at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Council and Hierarchy: The Political Thought of William Durant the Younger and the editor and translator of Hermann Conring's New Discourse on the Roman-German Emperor.
