The Historicality of Individuals

Bibliographic Data

ID11204323
AuthorsA Abbott (corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume29
Issue1
Pages1-13
Publication date2005-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Science History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0145-5532 • E-ISSN: 1527-8034
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/01455532-29-1-1
OpenAlexW4230989746
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited1

I wish to argue this afternoon that we should reinstate individuals as an important force in history.By this I do not mean a return to great-man history, or great-woman history for that matter.To be sure, social structure can and sometimes does confer on particular individuals extraordinary power to shape the future.But the crucial explanatory question in such cases is not the quality or actions of that individual, interesting as these might be.Rather it is the conditions under which such social structures emerge and stabilize.The real question, for example, is not why it was that Elizabeth Tudor chose not to marry, but rather how it came to be that there was a social structure in which her refusal to marry could have such enduring political consequences.In this sense, great-person history is merely an empirically defined sub-branch of the history of social structures in general.It is not really about individuals qua individuals or even about individuals taken as a group or type, but rather about the conditions that make particular individuals particularly important.So it is not to the great-person mode of thinking about individuals that I urge our return today.Nor will I urge us to turn to what we usually call "the life course perspective," although some of my own past work on careers (e.g., Abbott and

Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Social Power and Status Dynamics

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