- Presents a philosophical anthropology (a general conception of human beings as having interests and powers) of human beings as historical beings, capable of active, critical reflection on historical affordances

- Argues that effective, critical, normative moral-political philosophy and historical understanding that includes reference to ideals require each other

- Provides detailed readings of both Kant and Benjamin as developing critical, philosophical anthropologies as the general frameworks for their treatments of specific topics

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/images-of-history-9780190605322

http://www.swarthmore.edu/profile/richard-eldridge

Richard Eldridge is Charles and Harriett Cox McDowell Professor of Philosophy at Swarthmore College. He has held visiting appointments at Essex, Stanford, Bremen, Erfurt, Freiburg, Brooklyn, and Sydney. He is the author of 5 books and over 100 articles in aesthetics, philosophy of language, philosophy of literature, and Romanticism and Idealism. He has edited 4 volumes, including The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature, and he is the Series Editor of Oxford Studies in Philosophy and Literature.