The premise of Moon Tiger is an autobiography-in-progress in which Claudia, a historian by trade, interweaves her life story with world events. Lively uses this structure to explore the intersection of personal and global history and ultimately makes a two-fold assertion. It is impossible to truly separate a person’s life from its historical context. Likewise, it is impossible to understand global history without considering the individual lives that made it happen.

In the opening lines of the novel, Claudia conflates her story with the “history of the world” (1), introducing the first merger of the micro and macro. Though she tells a nurse that she is writing a history of the world, what unfolds is in fact a “kaleidoscopic” narrative that focuses most heavily on her own life while weaving in reflections on moments of major global import. Claudia’s conflation of personal and global histories is not an accident, and though it does reflect her hubris, it also serves as an important entry point to the present theme. Lively uses the character’s approach to her own autobiography to explore the nature of historical recollection. Elaborating further on what she means by “a history of the world,” Claudia writes: