 Alexander’s characterisation of history as having the whole world as its subject matter is interesting not least because it proved so controversial. Both R. G. Collingwood and Hilda Oakeley, two philosophers of history associated with British idealism, took strong issue with Alexander’s description; see Collingwood’s reprinted Principles of History (1938 [1999: 56]) and Oakeley’s “The World as Memory and as History” (1925–6).