The essay analyses Claudio Pavone’s volume on contemporary history pu­blished in 2007 in the Laterza ‘First Lessons’ series. In the author’s asses­sment, the book reflects the intellectual concerns and judgements of Clau­dio Pavone as an intellectual and historian that despite a close dialogue with the masters of historiography avoids unrewarding methodological exercises. In fact, the book both manifests Pavone’s profound awareness of the subject matter and offers a description of how contemporary history was formed and transformed in a period that coincides with the intellec­tual life of the author. Also in this manuscript Pavone manifests the cohe­rent civil passion that has innervated his whole life as a scholar.