historism

From German Historismus.

historism (countable and uncountable, plural historisms)

1. (historiography) An influential 19th-century school of thought in historiography that rejected universalist and anachronistic explanations of historical developments and instead emphasized the idiosyncrasies and organic developments of each culture and time period, to be understood through critical interpretation of primary sources in the context of the unique conditions that produced them.

• historicism

• hit-or-miss