The Uses of Comparative History in Macrosocial Inquiry

Bibliographic Data

ID2107172
AuthorsT Skocpol (0000-0002-3866-8108, Harvard University Press), Margaret R Somers (0000-0003-4751-6808, Harvard University Press), Margaret Somers
Year1980
Volume22
Issue2
Pages174-197
Publication date1980-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Studies in Society and History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-4175 • E-ISSN: 1475-2999
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0010417500009282
OpenAlexW2109860650
LanguageEN
Citations received438
References cited28

Comparative history is not new. As long as people have investigated social life, there has been recurrent fascination with juxtaposing historical patterns from two or more times or places. Part of the appeal comes from the general usefulness of looking at historical trajectories in order to study social change. Indeed, practitioners of comparative history from Alexis de Tocqueville and Max Weber to Marc Bloch, Reinhard Bendix, and Barrington Moore, Jr. have typically been concerned with understanding societal dynamics and epochal transformations of cultures and social structures. Attention to historical sequences is indispensable to such understanding. Obviously, though, not all investigations of social change use explicit juxtapositions of distinct histories. We may wonder, therefore: What motivates the use of comparisons as opposed to focussing on single historical trajectories? What purposes are pursued-and how-through the specific modalities ofcomparativehistory

Aesthetics · Appeal · Comparative history · Epistemology · Modalities · Order (exchange · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Wonder · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Conflict and Governance · Political Science Research and Education · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research

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