Rediscovered and rehabilitated in recent years, Kracauer's posthumous study of history constitutes, along with The Theory of Film, one of the German thinker's most important late works, as well as one of his fundamental contributions to contemporary philosophy and historiography. Here, Kracauer offers a tour through the main currents of modern history, highlighting their respective merits and limitations, and developing an exhaustive attack on any fatalistic vision of human history. This work—which seeks to construct "a philosophy of the provisional situation in which we find ourselves"—displays a broad gallery of thinkers and writers, exposing essential and often unsuspected facets: Hegel, Marx, Ranke, Burckhardt, Croce, Löwith, Benjamin, Adorno, among others.