From Athens to Auschwitz : the uses of history by Christian Meier and translated Meier, Christian Schneider, Deborah Lucas(Trans.)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-234) and index.

"Meier sees an ""absence"" of history in contemporary Europe and throughout the West--an absence he attributes to the way modern historians have written about history and, more important, to the dramatic transformations of the twentieth century. He argues for the central legacy of Western civilization. He tackles the difficulty of reconciling a historical perspective with our era of extreme acceleration, when experience is shaped less by inheritance and legacy than by the novelty of changes wrought by science and globalization. Finally, Meier contemplates the enormity of the Holocaust, which he sees as a test of ""understanding"" history. If it is part of the whole arc of the Western legacy, how do we fit it with the rest? This engaging and thought-provoking meditation challenge us to rethink the role of history in Western culture and a changing world."