Theories and Methods for a Social History of Historical Events — A Reply to Hermann Rebel

Bibliographic Data

ID11524867
AuthorsAndreas Suter (0000-0002-9214-6474, Bielefeld University, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume34
Issue3
Pages383-418
Publication date2001-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCentral European History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0008-9389 • E-ISSN: 1569-1616
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1163/15691610152959172
OpenAlexW2161553871
LanguageEN
References cited22

My study of the Swiss Peasants' War of 1653 has received four reviews in the United States. I am grateful to Hermann Rebel for supplying another, most unusual review to Central European History . It is unusual not only in length but also in judgment. Where the other reviews wrote positively about the book, Rebel rejects it completely. If I read Rebel correctly, his criticism covers four main points. First, he criticizes the book's theoretical point of view, alleging that the call for a “return to historical events in social history” means a return to “histoire événementielle” and would lead to “high antiquarianism.” Second, Rebel criticizes my methodological inferences from this theoretical point: systematic attention to the cultural dimension of human action; the expansion of social history's traditional methods of analysis and perspectives on time ( longue durée, temps sociale ) to include cultural and anthropological insights (from, i.e., Victor Turner, Mary Douglas, and Clifford Geertz); and the introduction of a “slow-motion” perspective

Action (physics · Art · Criticism · Cultural history · Epistemology · Perspective (graphical · Point (geometry · Political science · Sociology · Anthropology · Cultural History and Identity Formation · European Political History Analysis · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy

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