The Acceleration of History : From the Enlightenment to the Anthropocene

Modernity, proposes Christophe Bouton, is not about the acceleration of time, but about living in multiple temporalities—polychrony.

Like a speeding locomotive that has lost its driver, the history of Western society since the mid-nineteenth century has been characterized as an exponential, out-of-control acceleration. Simultaneously, in recent decades, the destructive impact of human activity on the planet has increased at a spectacular rate, giving rise to what has been called the Great Acceleration. But a kind of reversal seems to be taking place: nature, once seen as a realm of repetition, has become historicized and even rushed toward an end, while history, the very site of change itself, appears strangely stagnant. In the wake of Reinhart Koselleck, Bouton offers readers a history of the idea of acceleration from the Enlightenment to the Anthropocene and invites us to undertake a critical assessment of this narrative of the "acceleration of history." Challenging the theories of Hartmut Rosa and François Hartog, he emphasizes the plurality of temporal experiences that characterize our present—the polychrony of modernity. Ultimately, the book's aim is not to deny the relevance of the categories of acceleration and presentism for understanding modernity, but rather to show that alternative rhythms and relationships to both past and future also exist.