Reviews Jörn Rüsen's 'Rekonstruktion der Vergangenheit. Grundzüge einer Historik II: Die Prinzipien der Historischen Forschung' (1986) and Josef Meran's 'Theorien in der Geschichtswissenschaft. Die Diskussion über die Wissenschaftlichkeit der Geschichte' (1985), which are theoretical considerations of the status of history as a science. Each utilizes a work of the 19th-century German historian Johann Gustav Droysen, 'Historik' (1977 critical edition), in which Droysen asserted that history was neither resistant nor completely susceptible to theory, but was rather "amenable" to theory, as his starting point. Rüsen attempts to establish a new philosophy of history, whereas Meran is less ambitious, examining and evaluating the utilization of various historical theories in practice.