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Resumo

I outline four temporalities that appear in highly regarded explanatory historical social science. Given William Sewell's centrality to the literature, I do so through a critique of his proposition that there are 'three temporalities'—experimental time, teleology, and eventfulness—and that only the last of them is valid. I concede that his rejection of 'experimental' time is justified. But I argue that the category of 'teleology,' which Sewell rejects, encompasses two forms of transitional change—'tendencies' and 'thresholds'—that are coherent and defensible. I further argue that his preferred category of 'eventfulness' really refers to two distinct temporalities—'coincidences' and 'contrivances'—rather than just one. I illustrate tendencies, thresholds, coincidences, and contrivances in the works of John Veugelers, Ivan Ermakoff, Marshall Sahlins, and, of course, Sewell.

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