WHAT ARE “TEMPORALITIES” IN HISTORY?

Lucian Hölscher

History and Theory 63, no. 3 (2024)
Review of Time and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich, by Christopher Clark (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019).

The question of which “temporalities” underpinned historical processes in the past has increasingly become the focus of historical interest in recent years. In his brilliantly written study of Prussian history, Time and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich, Christopher Clark attempts to answer this question by turning to four Prussian statesmen and politicians who each followed different temporalities in their private and public lives. The benefit of his study lies not least in a better understanding of the concept of “temporality” and its significance for historical processes.