HSE Publishing House

“Modernité in Selected Cases” is dealing with a few subjects but there is only one main topic in the book. This topic is modernité, “modernity”, Modern times, a historical period which transformed the world more seriously and deeply than any other changes from the early years of Christianity. In the Russian common language “modern” cannot be differed from “contemporary”; in this context “modern” opposes “past” and “history”. But in English and French the terms “modern” and “modernity” have their own chronological limits and their own content. That is why this book focuses on modernité — modernité as the term introduced by Charles Baudelaire and as the historical period of industrial revolutions, market economy, mass production, mass society and mass ideologies. Kirill Kobrin tries to investigate the types and structure of historical consciousness of some of those who either participated in the making of modernité or opposed it. This book is written for the readers who have a taste for historical deliberations.