One example of a historically enlightened road map of politically progressive politics is the modernization-theoretical concept of the Bielefeld political social historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler (1931-2014) from 1975.¹ It is discussed in more detail here because it provides a good insight into the opportunities and limits of progressive history.

The modernization problems of the wider present are linked to the findings of the famous but now rarely read 1972 Club of Rome report entitled "The Limits to Growth". They are therefore presented here once again in detail in the context of their time and for discussion. All the dilemmas of progressive politics are exemplified in this text, above all the problem of the discrepancy between knowledge and action.

A separate chapter is devoted to the modernization and survival problem of our time par excellence, the transition of industrial society to planetary sustainability. In political discourse, sustainability quickly becomes as much a plastic word as progress if the cause-and-effect relationships and implementation are not clearly stated. Focusing on the process of transition makes this possible. A change-oriented history has something to say about this.

The dangers for the liberal constitutional state, the open society and all prospects for a democratically negotiated, sustainable transition of industrial society emanating from a racist understanding of history and politics are dealt with in a separate excursus. To remain silent about this today would be irresponsible. Only within the framework of the constitutional state and the international legal order can the transition be politically conceived and shaped at all.

Leaving it at the diagnosis of a threat to law and democracy is not very constructive. A separate chapter therefore examines the proposals made by the American historian Timothy Snyder to prevent or combat 'tyranny'. As his 'lessons' show, this is easier said than done.

A further chapter presents fields of progressive historical understanding: not with an encyclopaedic, but exemplary relevance-oriented intention. Progressive history does not exhaust itself in these topics as an epistemological interest, but their cross-sectional relevance can be well explained.

¹ Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Modernisierungstheorie und Geschichte [Modernization Theory and History], Göttingen 1975; here cited after the reprint: ders., Die Gegenwart als Geschichte. Essays, Munich 1995, pp. 13-123, here 13-59.