The acquisition of historical knowledge and the conditions of the subject of History, and thus the corresponding textbooks, should not be bound by didactic terms; similarly, their availability: the provision and acquisition of historical knowledge serves no other purpose than the understanding of the social environment by the social subject.

It is self-evident that in today's new edition of "Modern World," the necessary adjustments to the content have been made, I would say: those imposed by the time distance from the first edition, however, I must explain what this time distance may impose.

First and foremost, there are changes in society, in social relations, which sharpen the historian's perspective; there is new knowledge about the past that has inevitably arisen from historical research; there is the new type of reader that may have emerged in the meantime; there is even the history of the authors of a book that is necessarily reflected.

All of this leads to the rephrasing of some points, to the rearrangement of the material, to the addition of content. All those, otherwise, adapt the textbook to the current needs of historical education.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]