The Meaning of History. The New Middle Ages

“The Meaning of History” is based on a well-known course of lectures that examines the key causes and motives behind the world-historical process.

In 1924, Berdyaev wrote “The New Middle Ages,” which brought him recognition in Europe. In this work, he argues that Western civilization in the twentieth century, to a significant extent, returned to medieval traits.

Nikolay Alexandrovich Berdyaev (1874–1948) was a prominent Russian philosopher who moved away from Marxism and turned to the philosophy of personality and freedom, close in spirit to religious existentialism that studies human existence.

In “The Meaning of History,” Berdyaev seeks to identify the main motives driving the world-historical process and to understand what contradictions accompany humanity’s path toward eternity.

The collection includes “The New Middle Ages,” in which Berdyaev considers the concept of the return of Western civilization in the twentieth century to many aspects of medieval life.