This introductory chapter describes a change in the modern temporal order. The first is a general sense that the future is no longer much of a motivator in the arenas of politics, society, and the environment. Indeed, expectations for the future have become extremely modest. Within a relatively short period of time, the future itself has lost the power to shed light on the present, since we can no longer assume that it functions as the end point of our desires, goals, or projections. We have learned from historians that the rise and fall of particular futures is in itself nothing new. However, it is the case not only that particular visions of the future have collapsed in contemporary times, but also that the very concept of the future itself is being called into question. Alongside the future's eclipse, the chapter contends that we are also witnessing another anomaly of our long-held temporal order: the unprecedented return of the past.