History in Times of Unprecedented Change: A Theory for the 21st Century

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Preface: On Novelty Living in Times of Unprecedented Change: A Prologue Part I - On Historical Change 1. A Quasi-Substantive Philosophy of History 2. The Dissociated Past 3. The Unprecedented Future Part II - On Historiographical Change 4. The Expression of Historical Experience 5. Encountering the World 6. The Step towards Historical Sense-Making The Unprecedented and the Crisis of the Political: An Epilogue Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Zoltán Boldizsár Simon is Research Fellow and Board Member of the Centre for Theories in Historical Research at Bielefeld University, Germany.

Review :
In History in Times of Unprecedented Change: A Theory for the 21st Century, Zoltán Boldizsár Simon offers a groundbreaking examination of the historical sensibility centered on unprecedented change that has coalesced since the mid-twentieth century ... his book is timely and invigorating, and it stands as a new signpost in historical thought. This book is a noteworthy achievement that will likely be of lasting interest to historical theorists-another sign that this branch of philosophical inquiry is at last extending its horizons to address matters of existential, rather than solely technical or specialized, urgency. Simon's rigorous and meticulously illustrated account of unprecedented change most certainly presents a benchmark that subsequent approaches can hardly overlook. In History in Times of Unprecedented Change, Simon has laid the groundwork for a discussion of what he calls postwar historical sensibility, taking it seriously in its own account without trying to integrate it into existing explanatory approaches of the humanities. The book will be of interest not only to historians interested in conceptualizations of temporality or historicity but to scholars outside of history as well, as it could fuel discussion in a lot of fields concerned with the Anthropocene. Among an expanding literature, Zoltan Simon's challenging book will quickly become a landmark. A clear vision of what is at stake, a well informed and precise inquiry starting from a fascinating question: how to think the novelty of an “unprecedented event” or “unprecedented change", such as the anthropogenic one? And an ambitious proposal to rethink the very concept of history. The idea that the devastating wars of the twentieth century and the unprecedented growth of technology and environmental concerns of the twenty-first have, taken together, permanently destroyed the appeal of history in the West, has been dominant for a while. Simon mounts a vigorous, provocative, and imaginative challenge to that thesis. A powerful intervention that will rekindle debates about history and its nature in our uncertain times. In a world that seems both bewildered by and disassociated from history, Zoltan Simon brings a sharp and deep argument in favour of philosophy of history that embraces disruption. His is a deft and thought-provoking account of why novelty, historical ownership and singularity need to be understood on more than narrative terms. This will be an invaluable book for anyone wanting to dig into and to break past the sense that theory cannot speak in a world of so many fractured voices. History understood as knowledge of the past can never be the same after reading Zoltan Boldizsar Simon's book. It offers a future-oriented perspective on historical thinking which is challenged by times of unprecedented change. We are living through an epochal transformation marked by nuclear warfare, anthropogenic climate change, bioengineering and radical enhancement. How can history as a conceptual strategy help us to cope with these novelties? How might the future be pre-figured through a different approach to historical change? And how would this reorient theories of historical writing? In exploring these questions, the author presents a thought-provoking book that belongs to the emerging fields of anthropocene and posthumanist history. It is a must read for anyone interested in critical history as realistic scientific-fiction. History is in trouble, or even in crisis. At present, this is almost a truism. What sets Zoltan Boldizsar Simon's book apart from other publications making the same claim, in the footsteps of Francois Hartog, Aleida Assmann and others, is that he actually knows why. His theory of unprecedented changes presents a radical - indeed unprecedented - attack on history as developmental process and narrative form, penned by one of the most original new voices in the theory of history.