Logics of history : social theory and social transformation / William H. Sewell Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sewell, William H., Jr., 1940-

Series:

Chicago studies in practices of meaning

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences and history.

History--Philosophy.

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 412 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Summary:

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 soophisticated 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.

Contents:

1 Theory, History, and Social Science 1

2 The Political Unconscious of Social and Cultural History, or, Confessions of A Former Quantitative Historian 22

3 Three Temporalities: Toward an Eventful Sociology 81

4 A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation 124

5 The Concept(s) of Culture 152

6 History, Synchrony, and Culture: Reflections on the Work of Clifford Geertz 175

7 A Theory of the Event: Marshall Sahlins's "Possible Theory of History" 197

8 Historical Events as Transformations of Structures: Inventing Revolution at the Bastille 225

9 Historical Duration and Temporal Complexity: The Strange Career of Marseille's Dockworkers, 1814-70 271

10 Refiguring the "Social" in Social Science: An Interpretivist Manifesto 318.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 373-396) and index.

ISBN:

0226749177

0226749185

OCLC:

56793679

Online:

Contributor biographical information