意大利史學家克羅齊於一九一五年出版《歷史的理論與實踐》（History, Its Theory and Practice）一書，提出了他的一個重要的史學觀點：「一切真歷史都是當代史」。從字面上來解釋，這句話似乎不通。但克羅齊所說的「當代史」，不是從一般日常用語的意義來解釋的，它另有深刻的內涵。克羅齊將歷史分為「真歷史」與「假歷史」、或「活歷史」與「死歷史」兩大類。過去的歷史，一去不復返，只留下一些史料了。這些史料成了「死歷史」或「假歷史」，不發生作用了。只有在當代的人，由於需要，或由於個人的興趣與情感，去回顧這些史料；當那些史料能在當代人的心中引起回響，使過去與現在都重新聯結時，那些「死資料」，「死歷史」才能再度復活而成為「活歷史」。每一世代的人，都不斷的以現代目光去回顧那些歷史，並改寫過去的歷史，而過去的歷史，也在染上現代色彩之下重新出現，因此克羅齊便認為「一切歷史都是當代史」。 克羅齊的史觀深受德國哲學家黑格爾影響，是「新黑格爾主義」的代表人物，他是唯心論者，認為精神是世界的本質，而精神（思想）是不受時間限制的，從這個觀點看來，則「一切歷史都是當代史」，因為對唯心論者來說，時間不具意義。克羅齊這一觀念，對二十世紀的西方史學界，有過重大影響。 本文對克羅齊所提「一切歷史都是當代史」這一論點，從多方面進行探討，並與章學誠在《文史通義》中的歷史觀念進行了比較。

According to B. Croce, “All history is contemporary history.” Croce categorized history into two types: “genuine history” and “false history” or “living history” and “dead history”. The kind of history which is past is past and gone forever, leaving to us only a pile of materials which have become “dead history” or “false history”, not functioning any more. Only when contemporary people, out of their contemporary needs, with their individual interests and emotions, recapture and review these historical materials can such historical materials evoke echoing vibrations in the contemporary people, thus reconnecting the past and the present, causing the dead materials and dead history to review and become “living history”. In this way, every generation reexamines previous history with contemporary eyes and continuously rewrites the past history. At the same time, the past time, the past history reappears with contemporary coloring. This is the reason why Croce believes that all history contemporary history. Croce's view of history was deeply influenced by Hegal. As a matter of fact, he has been considered to be one of the representatives of the Neo-Hegelian School. Croce is an idealist. He considered the spirit to be the essence of the world, and he believed that the spirit (thought) is never confined by time. with this in view, “All history is contemporary history,” because for the idealists, time does not bear any significant. This idea of Croce had great influence on the academic world of western history in the twentieth century.