History and Social Theory

Burke, Peter

ISBN 10: 0745607373 / ISBN 13: 9780745607375

Editore: Cornell Univ Pr, 1992

Riguardo questo articolo

Your purchase helps support Sri Lankan Children's Charity 'The Rainbow Centre'. Ex-library, so some stamps and wear, but in good overall condition. Our donations to The Rainbow Centre have helped provide an education and a safe haven to hundreds of children who live in appalling conditions. Codice articolo Z1-M-006-03230

Dati bibliografici

Titolo: History and Social Theory

Casa editrice: Cornell Univ Pr

Data di pubblicazione: 1992

Legatura: Brossura

Condizione: Good

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto:

What is the use of social theory to historians, and of history to social theorists? In clear and energetic prose, a pre-eminent cultural historian here offers a far-reaching response to these deceptively simple questions. In this classic text, now revised and updated in its second edition, Peter Burke reviews afresh the relationship between the fields of history and the social sciences and their tentative convergence in recent decades. Burke first examines what uses historians have made - or might make - of the models, methods, and concepts of the social sciences, and then analyzes some of the intellectual conflicts, such as the opposition between structure and human agency, which are at the heart of the tension between history and social theory. Throughout, he draws from a broad range of cultures and periods to illustrate how history, in turn, has been used to create and validate social theories. This new edition brings the book up to date with the addition of examples and discussions of new topics such as social capital, globalization and post-colonialism. The second edition of History and Social Theory will continue to stimulate both students and scholars across a range of disciplines with its challenging assessment of the roles of history and social science today.

Recensione:

′A learned, companionable and wide ranging guide to avant–garde historical writing and contemporary historical thought.′ Raphael Samuel, Ruskin College, Oxford ′Should be read by all interested in the humanities.′ The Times Higher Education Supplement

′It should become essential reading for students on courses in historiography, principles and methods of history.′ Literature and History

′Drawing eclectically from a broad range of concepts and theories in the social sciences, Burke succeeds in showing their rich potential to stimulate and inform historical studies.′ Discourse and Society

This is much more than the superlative synthesis that one has come to expect and rely upon from Peter Burke. If it is a brilliant account of recent historiography, it is quite as much a substantive contribution to social theory specifying more powerfully than can most most sociologists themselves the character of the social agents who have affected the historical record. The book is supremely useful and an instant classic.

Professor John Hall, Dean of Arts, McGill University

Sociologists need to think more historically, and historians need to think more theoretically. Peter Burke is an excellent guide for both groups.

Professor Stephen Mennell, Department of Sociology, University College Dublin

"History and Social Theory [is] a very useful and stimulating book and should be on the reading of all social historians and students of social history."
Kleio