Review

Author(s): Harvey J. Kaye

Review by: Harvey J. Kaye
Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 80, No. 4 (Mar., 1994), p. 1420
Published by: Organization of American Historians
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2080608
Accessed: 18-03-2015 19:27 UTC

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Book Reviews

Historyand Social Theory.By PeterBurke.

(Ithaca:CornellUniversity
Press,1992.x, 198
pp. Cloth,$37.50,ISBN0-8014-2861-0.
Paper,

a remarkably
diversearrayof scholarsand
schoolsin bothhistory
andsocialtheory,
from
Marxists
to recent
and British
Annalesfigures
$14.95, ISBN 0-8014-8100-7.)
suchas PierreBourdieuand
socialtheorists
Anthony
Giddensand critical-historical
phiThoseofuspursuing
theengagement
between losophers
suchas MichelFoucaultandJurgen
history
and the socialsciencesin the 1960s Habermas.Mostimpressive
is howeffectively
to be disciplinary
wereperceived
rebelsat the Burkepresents
ora work,
a problem
highlighttimeand evenintothe 1970s.But clearly
we ingitsmethodological
and theoretical
worth
interms
wereontosomething
ofmethod,the- andthenbriefly
itsinadequacies
and
revealing
ory,and subject.In theverysimplestterms, failings.
Atthesametime,becausehe triesto
thenumberofinterdisciplinary
consider
he can be accusedof
jour- coverso muchterritory,
sincethenandthestatusthey eclecticism
nalsestablished
(whichhe acknowledges),
though
I wouldmorereadily
haveachieved
(in additiontotheearlyandpiaccusetheworkoflacking
and Com- in realpassion.
oneering
Annales,Past& Present,
parativeStudiesin Societyand History).
The majorweaknessof the workforour
A British
cultural
historian,
PeterBurkehas purposes
-and all themoreforourEuropean
playedan activerolein all ofthisthrough
his counterparts,
who need to be betterinownstudies,forexample,in PopularCulture formed!-is that it is decidedlyEuro-centric.
in EarlyModernEurope(1978)and TheHis- Exceptforthewritings
ofsuchAmerican
scholtoricalAnthropology
of EarlyModernItaly ars as ImmanuelWallerstein,Barrington
theworkoftheAn- Moore,
(1987),and bybringing
Jr.,andNatalieZemonDavis,whoare
totheattention
nalesschoolhistorians
thereisessentialofBrit- notthemselves
Americanists,
ish and Americanscholars,
mostrecently
in
ly no coverageof Americandevelopments.
The FrenchHistoricalRevolution:The An- One couldeasilyimagineBurke'shavingatnales School,1929-1989(1990). Indeed, in
tendedto a varietyof originalworksand
1980Burkeauthoreda littlevolumeentitled figures
intheareasofAmerican
Amerslavery,
and History,
intendedto introduce ican laborand management,
and American
Sociology
todevelopments
students
underway.Thepres- environmental
to
studiesthatspeakdirectly
entbookis a muchrevisedand enlargedver- "historyand social theory."Nevertheless,
sionof it.
thoughthebookis likelyto be mostusefulto
ThenewHistory
andSocialTheory
ismuch socialscientists,
whoarelessoftenboundto
written
thanitsparentwork.Not only a particular
better
timeandplacethanarehistorians,
of itwillserve,
is itlonger,
forstudents,
as a handy
makingitmorecomprehensive
especially
continuing
developments
(thoughit stillre- guideto recentdevelopments.
at 165pagesoftext);itis also
mainscompact,
HarveyJ.Kaye
to read. Divided into five
moreinteresting
University
of Wisconsin
- theorists
and historians,models
chapters
Green Bay, Wisconsin
centralconcepts,
centralproband methods,
andsocialchange- the
lems,andsocialtheory
workattendsin critically
appreciative
waysto
1420

The Journalof AmericanHistory

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March1994