[1] Influenced by Leopold von Ranke, Wilhelm Dilthey, and Friedrich Meinecke, he became the founder of the "spiritual-historical" school in Hungarian historiography, which advocated the idea of a conservative development of his country in the spirit of a "Christian community".

Having an antisemitic viewpoint, he named the anti-national “Jewish spirit” as one of the main reasons for the decline and proposed that Hungary should rid itself not only of communism, but also of “the liberalism that gave birth to it".

He stood up for an independent, free Hungary, writing an article entitled The Concept of Freedom for the Christmas issue of the social-democratic Népszava in 1941, which exemplified the anti-German national unity.

In his series of articles entitled " Somewhere We Lost Our Way", published in Magyar Nemzet in 1943–1944, he criticized the official policy of the counter-revolutionary regime and voted for a Western-oriented, moderate conservatism.

Preparing the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between the USSR and the Hungarian Republic, Szekfű gave multiple lectures praising the leadership of Lenin and Stalin in the Soviet Union.