Abstract
Dutch historian Jan Romein's (1893-1962) "theoretical history" was an attempt to reestablish the relevance of history to public life in the 1930's at a time of immense political uncertainty and cultural crisis, when, in Romein's view, history had become too inward-looking and isolated from other disciplines. Romein believed, inspired by Marx, that history must contribute to social improvement. At the same time, influenced by the successes of theoretical physics and his study of Toynbee, Spengler, F. J. Teggart, and others, he spurred on the development of theoretical history in the Netherlands, to the point where it became a subject in its own right at the university level after the war.