Without denying the importance of the postmodernist approach to the
narrative form and rhetorical strategies of historiography, the author,
one of Germany's most prominent cultural historians, argues here in
favor of reason and methodical rationality in history. He presents a
broad variety of aspects, factors and developments of historical
thinking from the 18th century to the present, thus continuing, in
exemplary fashion, the tradition of critical self-reflection in the
humanities and looking at historical studies as an important factor of
cultural orientation in practical life.