Ideas in Time

Ideas In Time deals extensively with the history of ideas. The aims of the
book are: to provide a coherent theoretical account of the ill-defined field
known as ‘the history of ideas’; to emphasise the longue durée or long view in
intellectual and cultural history; to develop a reconfigured history of ideas,
attentive both to the endurance of certain ideas and beliefs, and to breaks
and shifts in meaning over time; and to support this general ambition with
studies of specific ideas over long durations, namely: the ideas of progress,
democracy, zero, charisma, the Olympic games, and the idea of the West. Ideas
in Time emphasises both historical continuity and discontinuity, drawing on
both perspectives in its reconstruction of the history of ideas. This
theoretical model entails the possibility of tracing the history of certain
ideas from their ancient origins to their present expression, while
acknowledging alterations in meaning determined by changing social and
cultural contexts.