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

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Book Reviews

History and Social Theory. By Peter Burke. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992. x, 198 pp. Cloth, $37.50, ISBN 0-8014-2861-0. Paper, $14.95, ISBN 0-8014-8100-7.)

Those of us pursuing the engagement between history and the social sciences in the 1960s were perceived to be disciplinary rebels at the time and even into the 1970s. But clearly we were onto something in terms of method, the- ory, and subject. In the very simplest terms, consider the number of interdisciplinary jour- nals established since then and the status they have achieved (in addition to the early and pi- oneering Annales, Past & Present, and Com- parative Studies in Society and History).

A British cultural historian, Peter Burke has played an active role in all of this through his own studies, for example, in Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (1978) and The His- torical Anthropology of Early Modern Italy (1987), and by bringing the work of the An- nales school historians to the attention of Brit- ish and American scholars, most recently in The French Historical Revolution: The An- nales School, 1929-1989 (1990). Indeed, in 1980 Burke authored a little volume entitled Sociology and History, intended to introduce students to developments under way. The pres- ent book is a much revised and enlarged ver- sion of it.

The new History andSocial Theory is much better written than its parent work. Not only is it longer, making it more comprehensive of continuing developments (though it still re- mains compact, at 165 pages of text); it is also more interesting to read. Divided into five chapters - theorists and historians, models and methods, central concepts, central prob- lems, and social theory and social change - the work attends in critically appreciative ways to

a remarkably diverse array of scholars and schools in both history and social theory, from Annales figures and British Marxists to recent social theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu and Anthony Giddens and critical-historical phi- losophers such as Michel Foucault and Jurgen Habermas. Most impressive is how effectively Burke presents a problem or a work, highlight- ing its methodological and theoretical worth and then briefly revealing its inadequacies and failings. At the same time, because he tries to cover so much territory, he can be accused of eclecticism (which he acknowledges), though I would more readily accuse the work of lacking in real passion.

The major weakness of the work for our purposes -and all the more for our European counterparts, who need to be better in- formed!-is that it is decidedly Euro-centric. Except for the writings of such American schol- ars as Immanuel Wallerstein, Barrington Moore, Jr., and Natalie Zemon Davis, who are not themselves Americanists, there is essential- ly no coverage of American developments. One could easily imagine Burke's having at- tended to a variety of original works and figures in the areas of American slavery, Amer- ican labor and management, and American environmental studies that speak directly to "history and social theory." Nevertheless, though the book is likely to be most useful to social scientists, who are less often bound to a particular time and place than are historians, it will serve, especially for students, as a handy guide to recent developments.

HarveyJ. Kaye University of Wisconsin Green Bay, Wisconsin

1420 The Journal of American History March 1994

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