Lo specchio infranto. “Regimi di storicità” e uso della storia secondo François Hartog

This article is a critical review of François Hartog’s contribution to recent historiographical debates. It examines Hartog’s concept of «regime of historicity» and its applications. Furthermore, it discusses the latest form of historical temporality, which Hartog called «presentism», intending it as a time dominated by imperatives of the present and by the «suspension» of historical time. Hartog’s attempt to find a way out of this impasse, which is usually called the postmodern condition, is an exciting challenge and historians are not the only ones to find it fascinating.