History has always been more than just the past. It involves a
relationship between past and present, perceived, on the one hand, as a
temporal chain of events and, on the other, symbolically as an
interpretation that gives meaning to these events through varying
cultural orientations, charging it with norms and values, hopes and
fears. And it is memory that links the present to the past and therefore
has to be seen as the most fundamental procedure of the human mind that
constitutes history: memory and historical thinking are the door of the
human mind to experience. At the same time, it transforms the past into
a meaningful and sense bearing part of the present and beyond. It is
these complex interrelationships that are the focus of the contributors
to this volume, among them such distinguished scholars as Paul Ricoeur,
Johan Galtung, Eberhard Lämmert, and James E. Young. Full of profound
insights into human society pat and present it is a book that not only
historians but also philosophers and social scientists should engage
with.