  In recent years, an increasing number of proper motions have been measured
for Galactic X-ray binaries. When supplemented with accurate determinations of
the component masses, orbital period, and donor effective temperature, these
kinematical constraints harbor a wealth of information on the system's past
evolution. Here, we consider all this available information to reconstruct the
full evolutionary history of the black hole X-ray binary XTE J1118+480,
assuming that the system originated in the Galactic disk and the donor has
solar metallicity. This analysis accounts for four evolutionary phases: mass
transfer through the ongoing X-ray phase, tidal evolution before the onset of
Roche-lobe overflow, motion through the Galactic potential after the formation
of the black hole, and binary orbital dynamics due to explosive mass loss and
possibly a black hole natal kick at the time of core collapse. We find that
right after black hole formation, the system consists of a ~6.0-10.0 solar
masses black hole and a ~1.0-1.6 solar masses main-sequence star. We also find
that that an asymmetric natal kick is not only plausible but required for the
formation of this system, and derive a lower and upper limit on the black hole
natal kick velocity magnitude of 80 km/s and 310 km/s, respectively.
