This open access book provides the first scholarly account of the role of hope and hopefulness from the perspective of social and cultural life in ancient, medieval and early modern societies. This edited collection brings together fourteen chapters based on case-studies from its contributors, along with a theoretical chapter that serves as the introduction. Throughout history, people have gone on with their lives despite many kinds of trials and tribulations. In this, hope, understood as a future-oriented positive disposition, has been a major driving force to manage uncertainty, mitigate despair, and to give meaning to living. This book analyzes these life situations and changing responses to them in the context of hope and futurity in a longue durée perspective.

Oana-Maria Cojocaru is an Independent Researcher based in Bucharest, Romania.

Ville Vuolanto is Senior Lecturer in History at Tampere University, Finland.