This book places two key notions up against each other to imagine a new way of conceptualizing historical time. How do the experience of d j vu and the idea 'End of History' relate to one another? Through thinkers like Bergson, Koj ve and Nietzsche, Virno explores these constructs of memory and the passage of time. In showing how the experience of time becomes historical, Virno considers two fundamental concepts from Western philosophy: Power and The Act, reinterpreting these with respect to time. Through these, he elegantly constructs a radical new theory of historical temporality.

Paolo Virno teaches Philosophy at the University of Rome. His recent books include A Grammar of the Multitude and Multitude: Between Innovation and Negation.