Historical Sociology

Pierre Birnbaum

History and sociology have been, since the 19th century, two completely separate fields based on different views of society. History was supposed to deal only with the main political or military events, with important people shaping the world, its battles, its diplomatic quarrels, while sociology was supposed to be concerned with the evolution of the society as a collective body changing through various stages. Sociology was frequently ahistorical, neglecting individuals and their values, outlining, on the contrary, the structures and the functions of crucial institutions, their role within the process of modernization leading all societies toward some kind of progress. History and sociology were competing, excluding each other from the realm of social science. History was the noble science, often building a kind of philosophical approach accepted by everyone on the meaning and the destiny of random events. Increasingly, though, these two fields have intersected, resulting in the discipline of ...

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