History is neither a tribunal nor an alibi. […]Absurdity having become event, it should not also receive some kind of absolution via attributions of meaning after the fact.

It is wrong-headed to look for an event’s meaning in its consequences. 

Sediments of Time features the most important essays by renowned German historian Reinhart Koselleck not previously available in English, several of them essential to his theory of history. The volume sheds new light on Koselleck's crucial concerns, including his theory of sediments of time; his theory of historical repetition, duration, and acceleration; his encounters with philosophical hermeneutics and political and legal thought; his concern with the limits of historical meaning; and his views on historical commemoration, including that of the Second World War and the Holocaust. A critical introduction addresses some of the challenges and potentials of Koselleck's reception in the Anglophone world.

Sediments of Time

REINHART KOSELLECK

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