American History and the Social Sciences

Fülszöveg

AMERICAN HISTORY
AND THE
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Edited by Edward N. Saveth
"Historians and social scientists are separated," writes Edward N. Saveth in his introduction to this reader, "by the fact that historians know too little social science and social scientists know too little of history. This is an inevitable consequence of the departmental system in graduate and undergraduate schools and of the demand for intensive specialization. A recent survey pointed out that 'history graduate students need more undergraduate study in related disciplines than they commonly acquire.'"
How, precisely, can the concepts of the social sciences contribute to our understanding of history? This fascinating reader offers an outstanding collection of broad-ranging, provocative articles that show how historians have used the Concepts of economists, sociologists, psychoanalysts, political scientists, geographers, and others to illuminate some of the most persistent and perplexing problems in American... Tovább

Fülszöveg

AMERICAN HISTORY
AND THE
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Edited by Edward N. Saveth
"Historians and social scientists are separated," writes Edward N. Saveth in his introduction to this reader, "by the fact that historians know too little social science and social scientists know too little of history. This is an inevitable consequence of the departmental system in graduate and undergraduate schools and of the demand for intensive specialization. A recent survey pointed out that 'history graduate students need more undergraduate study in related disciplines than they commonly acquire.'"
How, precisely, can the concepts of the social sciences contribute to our understanding of history? This fascinating reader offers an outstanding collection of broad-ranging, provocative articles that show how historians have used the Concepts of economists, sociologists, psychoanalysts, political scientists, geographers, and others to illuminate some of the most persistent and perplexing problems in American history.
After a comprehensive introduction by the editor which defines what is meant by the "Social Science Approach" and stresses the need for integrating concepts that overcome the limits of the traditional disciplines, there is a brief introductory section by social scientists outlining what the specific discipline of each can contribute to
(Continued from front flap)
understanding history. By far the largest section of the book, however, shows how historians have used social science concepts—the subconscious, class, mobility, role, image, power, etc.—to illuminate persistent problems in American history. Thomas C. Cochran, Richard Hofstadter, Oscar and Mary Handlin, Lee Benson, David M. Potter, Dexter Perkins, and Henry Steele Commager are but some of the many historians who show, by example rather than by methodological excursions, how the integration of the social sciences into the main corpus of American history can lead to the enrichment of both.
There is a special section on the increasingly important tools of quantification and machine processes. The reader concludes with a brief section on the limits to the application of social science to the varied and frequently indeterminate data of history.
Historians—especially American historians—and all social scientists will find History and the Social Sciences an indispensable volume. Vissza