metahistory

— The fundamental perspective for conceiving “metahistory” can be found in largely German thinkers. The German historicism of Herder, followed by that of Kant—who took issue with Herder's “metahistorical” interpretations, and then Kant's own students who deepened the evidence for the generational history that is the foundation for “metahistory,” Friedrich Schleiermacher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Leopold von Ranke and finally Friedrich Meinecke.