In this extraordinary analysis of the meaning of the remembered past, Lukacs discusses the evolution of historical consciousness since its first emergence about three centuries ago. Among the diverse subjects he examines are the endurance of national characteristics, the development of language, history, and democracy, public opinion, the problem of religious history, memory and time, history and physics, motives and causes, and the end of the Modern Age. In a new introduction, Lukacs comments on the continual decline of historical knowledge and the teaching of history.