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The Sociological Study of History: Institutions and Social Development

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What Has Sociology Achieved?

Abstract

Classical sociology arguably is historical sociology. We may debate the relationship in Western sociology since the Second World War between the empirical-analytical, the hermeneutic and the historical-institutional threads in sociology as a discipline. Yet in the preceding few generations, a concern with the development of human societies — particularly but not exclusively the institutions of ‘industrial’, ‘capitalist’ or ‘Western’ societies, call them what you will — was central to the work of those we recognise as the ‘founding fathers’ of sociology. This is obviously true of the Holy Trinity of the sociologists’ pantheon, even if Durkheim expressed the concern in a slightly different way from Marx and Weber (see Bellah, 1959). It is also true of the dozen or so principal apostles who keep them company in the pantheon — such as Comte, de Tocqueville, Spencer, Toennies and Mannheim. These people framed most of the central problems of the discipline, and framed them originally in an historical or developmental way.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ, England

    Stephen Mennell (Reader)

Authors
  1. Stephen Mennell
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Salford, UK

    Christopher G. A. Bryant

  2. Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, Netherlands

    Henk A. Becker

Copyright information

© 1990 Christopher G. A. Bryant and Henk A. Becker

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Mennell, S. (1990). The Sociological Study of History: Institutions and Social Development. In: Bryant, C.G.A., Becker, H.A. (eds) What Has Sociology Achieved?. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20518-9_4

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