A philosopher worried about the present day chanced upon surprise after surprise while idly exploring the year 1938. Above and beyond such well-known milestones as the Munich Agreement and the so-called "weakness of democracies," he discovered facts, but also language, logic, and obsessions oddly parallel to those of today. The relinquishing of politics to the Popular Front , an insatiable thirst for authority, increasingly incantatory calls for democracy to counter the rise of nationalisms, immense fatigue with regard to law and justice: in the past, Foessel found the very image of our present.