ABSTRACT
Despite spending most of his working life as a journalist, Chesterton was decidedly different from the bulk of journalistic writers in the deep infl uence that he exerted on writers and thinkers who outlived him. Perhaps one reason for this is that, while Chesterton often dealt with contemporary ephemeral events, he did so in such a way that he combined a broad historical perspective with a synchronic attention to structures. He would go into the details of contemporary events without forgetting the context in which these events unfolded. In one sense, Chesterton foreshadowed the Formalist School in his attention to structures without rejecting historical considerations and thereby isolating his conclusions by depriving them of a connection with the past and ultimately, the future. Three examples of Chesterton’s ability to infl uence the outlook of other writers can be found in the historian Christopher Dawson (1889-1970), the novelist Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), and the critic Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980). As for these and other writers, the legacy of Chesterton’s historical thought was fruitful in its effects on thinkers of varying temperaments and interests.
