“In these times of ours, which are proclaimed daily as “historic,” isn’t it precisely this historical thinking that societies of other centuries possessed that is lacking?”

The awareness of change—or the will for change—seems to have vanished, overwhelmed by events before which our understanding cannot distinguish between inevitable misfortune and avoidable injustice in what we suffer, nor between the expedient, the anecdotal, the ridiculous, and the sensible in what we aspire to.

The great Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt, witness to a century of wars and upheavals, reminds us of what it takes to reflect on history and to position ourselves responsibly within it.