Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation
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While social scientists and historians have been exchanging ideas for a long time, they have never developed a proper dialogue about social theory. William H. Sewell Jr. observes that on questions of theory the communication has been mostly one way: from social science to history. Logics of History argues that both history and the social sciences have something crucial to offer each other. While historians do not think of themselves as theorists, they know something social scientists do not: how to think about the temporalities of social life. On the other hand, while social scientists' treatments of temporality are usually clumsy, their theoretical sophistication and penchant for structural accounts of social life could offer much to historians.Renowned for his work at the crossroads of history, sociology, political science, and anthropology, Sewell argues that only by combining a more sophisticated understanding of historical time with a concern for larger theoretical questions can a satisfying social theory emerge. In Logics of History, he reveals the shape such an engagement could take, some of the topics it could illuminate, and how it might affect both sides of the disciplinary divide. International Review of Social History "Over the past thirty-five years William H. Sewell has established himself as one of the leading social historians of his generation. One thing that makes him, as he notes, still fairly unusual is his willingness to reflect on the methods and assumptions of the forms of enquiry in which he engages. . . . This collection is . . . evidence of the fertility of the project."—Alex Callinicos, International Review of Social History— Alex Callinicos
1Theory, history, and social science12The political unconscious of social and cultural history, or, confessions of a former quantitative historian223Three temporalities : toward an eventful sociology814A theory of structure : duality, agency, and transformation1245The concept(s) of culture1526History, synchrony, and culture : reflections on the work of Clifford Geertz1757A theory of the event : Marshall Sahlins's "possible theory of history"1978Historical events as transformations of structures : inventing revolution at the Bastille2259Historical duration and temporal complexity : the strange career of Marseille's dockworkers, 1814-7027110Refiguring the "social" in social science : an interpretivist manifesto318
