Title:  The Postmodern, Democracy, History  Author:  Giovanni Mari Series:  Contemporary European Cultural Studies Imprint:  The Davies Group, Publishers soft cover 158 pp. USD 20.00 ISBN 978-1888570984 October  2006 Professor Mari's concerns are with what is sometimes called “substantive philosophy of history.” The book is primarily a discussion of the complicated interpretations of, among others, Jean-François Lyotard, Gianni Vattimo, and Richard Rorty on the status and future of philosophy of history. Contents Foreword Introduction Chapter One Democracy and history 1. Democracy without history? 2. Origins of democracy and the philosophy of history 3. Liberty and necessity 4. Dissolution and redescriptions of the paradigm of the classical philosophy of history 5. Democracy and crisis of the classical philosophy of history Chapter Two Postmodernity and history 1. The “end of history” 2. Archipelagos and transparent societies 3. Conversation and progress 4. The universal history of weakness 5. The postmodern as the new historicism Chapter Three Meaning and sense of history 1. Globalization and history of the world 2. The history of being as historicism without purpose 3. For a new nexus between future and past Chapter Four Right to the future 1. Historical equality 2. The inequalities of eternity 3. The affirmation of a personal future 4. The privilege of the future 5. The alternative of philosophy Notes Author Giovanni Mari holds the chair of the History of Philosophy at the Faculty of Education of the University of Florence. He founded and is editor-in-chief of the journal Iride. Filosofia e discussione pubblica. He has authored some ten books, the most well-known of which is Eternità e tempo nell’opera storica [Eternity and Time in Historical Work] [1997]. The translation of The Postmodern, Democracy, History was funded by the Segretariato Europeo per le Pubblicazioni Scientifiche (SEP)