Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of illustrations -- Preface -- 1 The eternal and the ephemeral -- Can history have laws? -- The law-seekers and the laws -- PART I The law-seekers -- 2 What are laws, and where can we find them? -- The historical background -- The laws of nature -- How are laws knowable? -- Laws of human society -- From the perspective of the social sciences -- Why not history? -- 3 Metaphysical historicism from Hesiod to Toynbee -- In the beginning: the ancient Greeks -- From degeneration to progress: Hegel, Marx, and Spencer -- The return of degeneration: Spengler and Toynbee -- Conclusions -- 4 Positive historicism from Comte to Rostow -- The positive tradition of Comte -- The existential tightrope walker: J.S. Mill -- An apostle of liberty: H.T. Buckle -- The historical school of economics -- The last positive historicist: W.W. Rostow -- Conclusions -- 5 The poverty or perversion of historicism? -- The philosophy of antihistoricism: Popper and Berlin -- The antihistoricism of the neo-Austrians: Mises and Hayek -- Conclusions -- 6 If history has laws, why haven't they been discovered? -- The dilemma of Heraclitus -- Focusing on the surface of civilization -- The dynamic agent as interpreter -- The conflict of methods -- A lack of preparation -- The antihistoricist campaign -- Conclusions -- PART II The laws -- 7 If history has laws, how would we recognize them? -- The old historicism -- Existential historicism -- Deriving the laws of history -- The existential method and Mill's proposed method of 'Ethology' -- Conclusions -- 8 The laws of societal dynamics -- The general dynamic-strategy model -- The primary laws of history -- Conclusions -- 9 The laws of historical change -- The dynamic mechanisms of human history -- The secondary laws of history -- Conclusions.

10 The laws of institutional change -- The strategic model of institutional change -- The tertiary laws of history -- Conclusions -- 11 The hidden wealth of historicism -- The sources of wealth -- The role of the laws of history -- Notes -- Glossary of new terms and concepts -- References -- Index.