This collection of papers from the conference "The World of Late Antiquity: The Challenge of New Historiographies" 1999 looks at the implications of modern historiography on the transformation of the classical world. While it is easy to recognise that the works of past historians are partly products of the world of the author - Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for example, is a reflection of the troubled times of the late British Empire - it is somewhat harder to understand the influences of our time on more recent works on Late Antiquity. The contributors reflect on the larger tradition of historical writing on the Classical period, and look at the development of their own work in relation to this.