In this volume, originally published in 1961, the author presents an exposition of the meanings given to history. Part 1 describes the conceptions of history impied in wide-spread religions and cultures, Confucian and Taoist, Hindu and Buddhist, Zoroastrian and Muslim, Greek and Roman, Jewish and Christian. Part 2 surveys the theories of independent thinkers and schools in the Occident from the Middle Ages to the mid-twentieth century.

In this book, originally published in 1967, the author gives his views of history, from reflection on living history as distinct from books about past history. He sees histories as the related histories of individuals and gives an account of the meanings in those individuals lives and defends the beliefs dominatnly held in relation to them. He challenges professional historians to concern themselves with the fundamentals of history, and philosophers to return to the cnsideration of problems persistent in the previous history of philosophy, occidental and oriental. "