Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T05:05:39.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Historical Sociology in the History of American Sociology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Extract

In a Recent Critical review of sociological perspectives on historical problems, Skocpol observed, “Until the 1970s, ‘historical sociology’ was not a phrase one often, if ever, heard in conversations among sociologists in the United States” (Skocpol, 1984: 356). Of course there was a good deal of prior historical work by sociologists, some of which Skocpol herself goes on to cite. Yet, by her phrasing, she has inadvertently raised a question about the place of history in the discipline of sociology. Like almost all sociologists who use historical materials or perspectives, Skocpol sees reason to complain about the failure of sociology to give a larger place to history. But for me, a prior issue, in the spirit of a historically minded sociology, involves discovering what happened to the name “historical sociology.” The naming of an activity, in this case historical sociology, and its performance—historical research and interpretations by sociologists—are quite distinct. The first task is to clarify their relationship.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1987 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, P. (1982) Historical Sociology. Ithaca: Cornell University.Google Scholar
Barnes, H. E. (1948) Historical Sociology: Its Origin and Development. New York: Philosophical Library.Google Scholar
Becker, H. P. (1934) “Historical Sociology,” in Bernard, L. L. (ed.) The Fields and Problems of Sociology. New York: Farrar and Rinehart: 1834.Google Scholar
Becker, H. P. (1952) “Deflation of Social Evolutionism: Prospects for Sound Historical Sociology,” in Becker, H. P. and Barnes, H. E., Social Thought from Lore to Science. 2nd ed. Vol. I Washington: Harren: 743790.Google Scholar
Berger, P. (1963) Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. New York: Anchor.Google Scholar
Bock, K. E. (1964) “Theories of Progress and Evolution,” in Cahnman, W. J. and Boskoff, A. (eds.) Sociology and History. New York: Free Press: 2141.Google Scholar
Bonnell, V. E. (1980) “The Uses of Theory, Concepts and Comparison in Historical Sociology.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 22 (April): 156173.Google Scholar
Bottomore, T. and Nisbet, R. (1978) “Structuralism,” in Bottomore, and Nisbet, (eds.) A History of Sociological Analysis. New York: Basic: 557598.Google Scholar
Bulmer, M. (1984) The Chicago School of Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Burke, P. (1980) Sociology and History. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Cahnman, W. J. and Boskoff, A. (1964) Sociology and History. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Chirot, D. (1976) “Introduction: Thematic Controversies and New Developments in the Uses of Historical Materials in Sociology.” Social Forces Special Issue 55 (December): 232241.Google Scholar
Churchman, C. W. (1948) Theory of Experimental Inference. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Clark, S. D. (1976) Canadian Society in Historical Perspective. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.Google Scholar
Coser, L. A. (1978) “American Trends,” in Bottomore, and Nisbet, (eds.) A History of Sociological Analysis. New York: Basic: 287320.Google Scholar
Cottrell, W. F. (1940) The Railroader. Stanford: Stanford University.Google Scholar
Davis, K. (1959) “The Myth of Functional Analysis.” American Sociological Review 24 (December): 757772.Google Scholar
Duncan, O. D. (1984) Notes on Social Measurement. Historical and Critical. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Erikson, K. T. (1970) “Sociology and the Historical Perspective.” American Sociologist 5 (November): 331338.Google Scholar
Faris, R. E. (1967) Chicago Sociology 1920-1932. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Fuller, R. C. and Myers, R. R. (1941) “The Natural History of a Social Problem.” American Sociological Review 6 (June): 320329.Google Scholar
Hawthorn, G. (1976) Enlightment and Despair. A History of Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University.Google Scholar
Hofstadter, R. (1955) Social Darwinism in American Thought. Rev. ed. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
House, F. N. (1936) The Development of Sociology. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Hughes, E. C. (1943) French Canada in Transition. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Jones, G. S. (1976) “From Historical Sociology to Theoretical History.” British Journal of Sociology 27 (September): 295305.Google Scholar
Lengerman, P. M. (1979) “The Founding of the American Sociological Review: The Anatomy of a Rebellion.” American Sociological Review 44 (April): 185198.Google Scholar
Lipset, S. M. (1963) The First New Nation. New York: Basic.Google Scholar
Lipset, S. M. (1967) Agrarian Socialism. Updated. Garden City, NY: Anchor.Google Scholar
Lipset, S. M. (1968) “History and Sociology: Some Methodological Considerations,” in Lipset, and Hofstadter, (eds.) Sociology and History: Methods. New York: Basic: 2058.Google Scholar
Lipset, S. M. (1970) Revolution and Counterrevolution. Rev. and updated. Garden City, NY: Basic.Google Scholar
Lipset, S. M. and Laslett, J. (1974) Failure of a Dream? Essays in the History of American Socialism. Garden City, NY: Anchor.Google Scholar
Lynd, R. S. and Lynd, H. M. (1929) Middletown. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
Lipset, S. M. (1939) Middletown in Transition. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
Marshall, T. H. (1964) Citizenship and Social Development. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K. (1938) Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth-Century England. Osiris. Bruges: St. Catherine. Reprinted in 1970 by Harper and Row, New York.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K. (1957) Social Theory and Social Structure (Revised and enlarged). New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K. (1973) The Sociology of Science. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Miner, H. (1939) St. Denis. A French-Canadian Parish. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Moore, W. E. and Williams, R. M. (1942) “Stratification in the Ante-Bellum South.” American Sociological Review 7 (July): 343351.Google Scholar
Nisbet, R. A. (1968) Tradition and Revolt. Historical and Sociological Essays. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Park, R. E. and Burgess, E. W. (1925) Introduction to the Science of Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1952) Structure and Function in Primitive Society. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
Redfield, R. (1941) The Folk Culture of Yucatan. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Roth, Gunther (1971) “‘Value-Neutrality’ in Germany and the United States,” in Reinhard Bendix and Guenther Roth, Scholarship and Partisanship. Essays on Max Weber. Berkeley: University of California: 3454.Google Scholar
Short, J. F. Jr. (1982) “Life History, Autobiography, and the Life Cycle,” in The Jack-Roller and Jon Snodgrass (eds.) The Jack-Roller at Seventy. Lexington, MA: Lexington: 135152.Google Scholar
Sica, A. (1985) “Sociology and the Humanities: A New Partnership,” in The American Council of Learned Societies, Report to the Congress of the United States on The State of the Humanities and the Reauthorization of the National Endowment for the Humanities: 121126.Google Scholar
Skocpol, T. (1984) Vision and Method in Historical Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University.Google Scholar
Stern, B. (1941) Society and Medical Progress. Princeton: Princeton University.Google Scholar
Stern, B. (1959) Historical Sociology. The Selected Papers of Bernhard J. Stern. New York: Citadel.Google Scholar
Stinchcombe, A. L. (1968) Constructing Social Theories. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.Google Scholar
Stinchcombe, A. L. (1978) Theoretical Methods in Social History. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Szacki, J. (1982) “The History of Sociology and Substantive Sociological Theories,” in Bottomore, T., Nowak, S., Sololowska, M. (eds.) Sociology. The State of the Art. London and Beverley Hills: Sage: 359374.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. (1980) “Historical Sociology,” in McNall, S. G. and Howe, G. N. (eds.) Current Perspectives in Social Theory. I Greenwich, CT: JAI: 5559.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. (1981) As Sociology Meets History. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. (1984) Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Wallerstein, I. (1974) The Modern World System. New York: Academic.Google Scholar