AHA Book Club #1: Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation by William Sewell
The structure of this session will be unusual. Rather than featuring speakers, the spotlight will be on a text. Those attending will be expected to be familiar with Sewell’s book and prepared to discuss it. Attendees will be expected to read excerpts from Logics of History, chaps. 1, 3–4, 8 (125pp.), and communicate with the chair in advance.
The session is free, but space is limited, so please sign up at http://goo.gl/forms/2yNJXqx0ks.
Receive 40% off this book from University of Chicago press. Visit http://bit.ly/1K4rkAS. Use code EX2926. Valid from Oct. 10-Dec. 10, 2015.
Session Abstract
William Sewell’s Logics of History (2005) is shaping up to be an enduring classic in the field. Designed in part to explain the historian’s craft to other social scientists, it has offered a language to historians themselves, a way of identifying and thinking theoretically about their own methodological habits and instincts. If sociologists study social patterns and anthropologists study cultural ones, then, Sewell has argued, historians are experts in temporality: periods, events, durations, and structure.
Such issues are of special concern now, as the debates over The History Manifesto show. What temporal scales we privilege, how we engage with the public, and how we convey the importance of history to our students are all of pressing concern. This session will use chapters of Sewell’s Logics of Historyas a jumping-off point for a discussion of the methodological roots of our field, with a particular eye toward how we can convey these in the classroom.
The structure of this session will be unusual. Rather than featuring speakers, the spotlight will be on a text. Those attending will be expected to be familiar with Sewell’s book and prepared to discuss it. Although the discussion will be facilitated, there will be no further role distinctions between audience and organizers. This is a seminar, not a lecture. Or, better put, a book club.
But rather than seeking to analyze and appreciate Sewell’s book, we will focus our discussion on its implications. How do we understand our methodology? What implications does that carry for how we present our field to outsiders. In particular, how can we convey the principles of history to undergraduates?
The session is free, but space is limited, so please sign up at http://goo.gl/forms/2yNJXqx0ks. Attendees will be expected to read excerpts from Logics of History, chaps. 1, 3–4, 8 (125pp.) and communicate with the chair in advance.