Since Homer and the Bible, there have been concepts about the passage of time and the position of the present between the past and the future. The fundamental figures in the classics of philosophy of history are always similar, as Alexander Demandt demonstrates in this book. He provides a unique overview of European historical thought since antiquity: the ancient idea of decadence (Hesiod, Plato), consciousness of progress (Xenophanes, Aristotle) and criticism of progress (Diogenes, Seneca), early cyclical theories (Solomon, Empedocles), Jewish-Christian salvation history (Daniel, Augustine), the epoch consciousness of the Renaissance (Machiavelli, Vico), history as enlightenment (Kant, Condorcet), historical idealism (Hegel, Humboldt), Goethe's universal individualism, historicism (Ranke, Meinecke), and historical materialism (Marx, Engels).