Part 1, Chapters 1-2 Summary and Analysis

The book opens with a French professor, Jules Michelet, teaching philosophy and history in January, 1824. He discovered the name Giavanni Vico and his interest leads him to learn Italian in order to read the works of Vico. Michelet was looking for a way to develop a new science of history based on merging history with philosophy. He developed what is called "re-oriented social history."

Vico's La Scienza Nuova took a different approach to history and the development of societies. He looked at the factors and environmental influences that shaped those societies. Vico looked at how society developed in stages and says that the same set of circumstances produce the same results. Society is the work of men and government is the result of this process. He discussed the organized nature of society. To Michelet, Vico explained how...