The Poverty of Historicism

Karl Popper’s ‘The Poverty of Historicism’ is one of the most important books on the social sciences to have appeared since the Second World War. It is also the work of one of the most original thinkers of the 20th century, and a devastating criticism of the idea that there are laws of development in history and that human beings are able to discover them. Popper dedicated the book to all those ‘who fell victim to the fascist and communist belief in inexorable Laws of Historical Destiny’. Short and lucidly written, it has inspired generations of philosophers, historians, politicians, and others, and remains one of the best books for gaining an insight into the ideas of this great thinker.