Croce on History

The book is the first critical reading of all the major writings on history by Benedetto Croce. The study is not a summary but a critical assessment based on the relevance of Croces aesthetics for his concept of history. This account differs from previous studies which are characterized by the excluding or by minimizing the aesthetic, a process the author calls defiguring. Within this framework Croces concept of history is not a total philosophy but only an allegory of history: a narrative of the impossibility of history. In other words, Croces history is not unlike his definition of Hegels Phenomenology or his system as fiction. It is also not unlike Vicos New Science, the other major influence on Croces concept of history, as an imaginative science. This study realigns Croces concept of history with Hegels and Vicos to redefine, thanks to Croce, how we understand history.