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Philosophy of History is Hegel's most accessible introduction to his thought.The introduction and preface are the most valuable parts of the book.Much of the book is only of historical interest. His history of Greece, Rome, Israel and the Germans cannot be taken seriously anymore. There are racist and jingoist views in this book that seriously date it.On the other hand, the book clearly expresses Hegel's spiritual philosophy of an evolving God who learns from the history of the world that is his thought.For those who are looking for an introduction to Hegel that is written in his own words, this book is invaluable.

Hegels PLhilosophie der Weltgeschichte hat eine ungeheure Wirkung entfaltet - bis auf den heutigen Tag. Sie in wenigen Zeilen zu umschreiben, ist unmöglich. Es sei nur soviel gesagt: Hegel sieht einen Sinn in der Geschichte, auch in ihren "dunklen Seiten". Das Prinzip ist, "dass die Vernumft die Welt beherrscht, dass es also auch in der Weltgeschichte vernünftig zugegangen ist." Dass es dabei nicht immer harmonisch zugehen kann, ist klar: "Die Weltgeschichte ist nicht der Boden des Glücks. Die Perioden des Glücks sind wie leere Blätter in ihr." Hegels Philosophie ist ausserordentlich umstritten. Moderne Philosphen wie Karl Popper haben Hegel vorgeworfen, ein Wegbereiter des Totalitarismus geworden zu sein. Sicher ist, dass die Geschichte ohne Hegel anders verlaufen wäre. Sicher ist auch, dass sie großen Einfluß sowohl auf Nazi-Deutschland als auch - in ihren marxistischen Veränderungen - auf die Sowjetunion gehabt hat. Das Buch ist nicht leicht zu lesen. Hegels Sprache erfordert auch in der englischen Übersetzung hohe Konzentration. Sekundärliteratur empfiehlt sich. Aber die Mühe lohnt sich, denn das Buch stellt eines der wichtigsten Werke der politischen Philosophie dar. (Dies ist eine Amazon.de an der Uni-Studentenrezension.)

Hegel didn't see the historical events as mere chances or something that happen by itself.. He believes that there has to be reason that cause all the historical events.. That reason is the struggle for freedom of human kinds. This central theme is presented through out the book. The way Hegel present the history is not through chronological order but he present it as being from East to West. This representation of the his history is very interesting in itself. By the time that Hegel wrote Philosophy of History, China was still under imperial rule therefore chinese could have much of the freedom. One of the criticism that I have on Hegel is that he threat the Far East as the strange and unrelated area.. Next interesting point that I found in this book is that the western civilization start from Greek.. (I definitely agree with him because Greek is the birth place of western philosophy, art, and politics).. By the time Roman take over the Europe, the center of culture m! ove from Athens to Rome..(Here, again everything moved from East to West). During the Roman Era, there were struggles of people against imperialism... In the sections about Roman, he wrote about the development of Christianity. As an advocated Christian, Hegel believed that Christianity is the divined political plan for people to be free from Roman Emperor.. (That's my interpretion of the Hegel's section on Christianity. It may be different from Hegel original idea) The last section he used Germany as the example of how modern nation evolved. In other word, he traced the history of Germany from barbaric period, to age of Holy Roman Empire, to the era of Germanic empire.. The transition from Holy Roman Empire to the Germanic Empire is the struggle for freedom from Catholic church by Germanic states...

Hegel's Philosophy of History is his easiest book to read. He angered some people by saying that History is Freedom, and so those countries which did not have Free States (in 1821, the year he wrote his book) were not truly part of History but part of the Pre-historic period. He begins with a narrative of Africa in 1821 which was steeped in Slavery, both internal and external. He stated that all nations were once at this level of Pre-history, where no king could last more than a year. But China was the first nation to make One but only One Person free, namely, the Emperor. This was the beginning of History. From this point Hegel traces those nations which increased Freedom slowly - from Egypt to Assyria to Babylon to Persia to Greece to Rome to Spain and then Europe as we know it today. The Idea of a Free Republic was born in Greece, but was first made material in Rome. Caesar opposed the Republic because he knew that the fullness of time had not yet come for it; so he opened up barbarian Europe instead. The Free Republic eventually grew to a point where a great, courageous World Historical Individual, Napoleon Bonaparte, overthrew the Medieval structures and paved the way for the eventual abolition of Slavery. Hegel was an Abolitionist and lived to see England and Spain renounce Slavery, but died long before Lincoln, so his view of the USA was pretty pessimistic.

Having just read the introduction (which is the theoretical core of the work), and having read a different translation, I can safely say that Sibree's translation progresses about as smoothly as one sloshing around in a Turtle(tm) pool full of runny egg-whites with three Sumatran carpet- sharks tied to one's back. This is an essential philosophical text; but try and get just the introduction (*Reason and History,* translated by Robert Hartman on Macmillan/Lib. Liberal Arts).

For a philosopher that one must LEARN to read, like Nietzsche (which should hopefully give the Nazism alarmists something to think about), the translation (non-indexed) reminds me of driving without a steering wheel, or like showering in Los Angeles - not something you want to repeat. A good text in that it's the only complete translation of PH that I know of. However, caveat emptor re: the stuff classical translation.