ABSTRACT
As we have seen in the previous chapters, Chesterton expresses his philosophy of history in a variety of forms. This book has been primarily concerned with three of those forms; the private, psychological form of the novel, the oral and public form of the poetry, and the analytical, discursive form of his critical works. Based on the observations that have been made concerning these three approaches, I draw several conclusions about Chesterton’s legacy in the area of the philosophy of history. Chesterton fi nds coherence in history to be a result of locality. A locality is where a person grows and exercises free will surrounded by a specifi c terrain, customs, language, and spiritual culture. Patriotism and nationalism are outgrowths of locality. The former tends to a love of one’s own locality without a corresponding antagonism toward another, while the latter tends to dissatisfaction and consequent antagonism.
