Croce

All history is 'contemporary history', declared Croce,^ meaning that history consists essentially in seeing the past through the eyes of the present and in the light of its problems, and that the main work of the historian is not to record , but to evaluate; for, if he does not evaluate, how can he know what is worth recording?

^: The context of this celebrated aphorism is as follows: 'The practical requirements which underlie every historical judgement give to all history the character of "contemporary history", because, however remote in time events thus recounted may seem to be, the history in reality refers to present needs and present situations wherein those events vibrate' (B. Croce, History as the Story of Liberty, Engl. transl. 1941, p. 19).