Why did Benedetto Croce believe that historians make history intelligible?

Benedetto Croce believed that historians make history intelligible by recognizing that all history is "contemporary history," meaning it is fundamentally bound to the historian's own time, place, and perspective. Rather than attempting to record the past as a static, objective collection of facts, Croce argued that historians must actively select, order, and interpret those facts to render them meaningful.1

In the context of the philosophy of history, Croce shared the view—often associated with R.G. Collingwood—that historical understanding is not achieved by subsuming events under universal scientific laws. Instead, he viewed historical thinking as a process of imaginative reconstruction or "re-enactment" of past experience. By framing historical descriptions in terms of the intentions, purposes, and ideas of past agents, historians exhibit events as expressions of human thought. This approach emphasizes that history is a living, active process of becoming, where the past is explained through the lens of the present.21