Contrary to assumptions sometimes made in the social sciences, there is no such thing as a straightforward synchronic cross section, springing unproblematically into view the moment one’s argument requires it. A single snapshot, outside time, without a degree of chronological depth, would be lacking in life and therefore in usefulness. If I present a series of perspectives, as I intend to, from about 1450, 1500, 1550, 1600, and 1650, it is not with the idea that on each occasion I shall be able to give a precise picture of the “situation” immediately discernible at these precise dates. Rather it is to assume a convenient set of vantage points from which to look both forward and backward, according to the disposition of time, the landscapes, and the realities before our eyes.
How can one gauge or comprehend life in progress without enlisting the passage of time as an accomplice?