Historical semantics studies the forms of understanding reality in language, culture and society and their change over time. The history of words, the history of concepts, the history of ideas, historical anthropology, as well as political philosophy and sociology contributed to this discipline. The convergence between these intellectual traditions is one of the tasks set by the authors of the collection. Along with the classical works of Antoine Meye ("How Words Change Meaning") and Thomas Cole ("Archaic Truth"), which were not previously published in Russian, the collection contains a critical review of modern approaches to the study of the history of words and concepts, as well as the latest research on historical semantics of the 16th 1-KhKh centuries. Among the ideas and constructions that are analyzed in the book: truth before the birth of philosophy, virtue and anthropology of courage, politics "in the shadow of cabinets" in France of the Old Regime, simple and complex concepts in the Enlightenment, peace and freedom as functions of modern consciousness, etc.