François Hartog explores crucial moments of change in society's "regimes of historicity" or its way of relating to the past, present, and future. Inspired by Arendt, Koselleck, and Ricoeur, Hartog analyzes a broad range of texts, positioning the The Odyssey as a work on the threshold of a historical consciousness and then contrasting it against an investigation of the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins's concept of "heroic history." He tracks changing perspectives on time in Châteaubriand's Historical Essay and Travels in America, and sets them alongside other writings from the French Revolution. He revisits the insight of the French Annals School and situates Pierre Nora's Realms of Memory within a history of heritage and our contemporary presentism.