La storia e l'Occidente all'inizio del nuovo millennio

We are now witnessing the demise of what Koselleck called the ‘new concept of history’ characterised by a unitary, linear and progressive, future-oriented, vision of historical development. A concept that took shape in the last decades of the 18th century, in close relation to the opening of a new phase in the globalisation process that saw Europe as a whole take on a hegemonic role in the system of political, economic and cultural relations on a global scale. The ‘new concept of history’ was a fundamental tool for interpreting and legitimising Western global dominance during the 19th and 20th centuries. The ability to generate a history with universal significance was considered an exclusive prerogative of the West.

The crisis of this image of history, and of the idea of progress, which is closely linked to it, can thus largely be seen as a consequence of the weakening of the West's grip on the world.