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Historical Sociology in Sociology: British Decline and US Hegemony with Lessons for International Relations Roland Dannreuther and James Kennedy School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh, Adam Ferguson Building, Edinburgh EH8 9LL, Scotland, UK. E-mails: [email protected], [email protected]

While historical sociology (HS) has declined in the UK, its position in the United States is much more secure. This article analyses the divergent paths of HS in both the UK and the US in order to provide some lessons for international relations (IR) in both countries. The article argues that HS in the US has been more successful in defining its particular contribution — the pursuit of important, macro-oriented research. The main benefit that HS can bring to IR is the provision of this ‘intellectual space’ allied to an engagement with ‘big issues’. The article traces such a contribution in three areas: the state, civil society and democratization; nationalism and ethnic conflict; and Islam and the Middle East. The article concludes by arguing that the adoption of HS may have the added benefit of transcending the exigencies of the present-day and the parochialism of Western and Eurocentric concerns found in much contemporary IR. International Politics (2007) 44, 369–389. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ip.8800196 Keywords: historical sociology; international relations theory; nationalism; Islam; civil society; state formation

The Promise of Historical Sociology The main contribution of historical sociology (HS) to sociology is the intellectual space it offers to think in macro-terms1 and in doing so connects sociological concerns not only with history but also with classical and contemporary social theory. HS flourishes when the intellectual environment encourages and is interested in larger questions of social and political change, which include the non-Western as much as the Western worlds. This article examines the conditions for the flourishing of HS by tracing the differing trajectories and fortunes of HS in sociology departments in both the UK and the US. In terms of its intellectual roots, HS can legitimately be seen as sociology par excellence. In the 18th century, a comparative and historical perspective was evident in the work of Montesquieu, and in particular among the Scottish moralists of Adam Smith, David Hume and Adam Ferguson who sought to

Roland Dannreuther and James Kennedy Historical Sociology in Sociology

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understand the shift to a capitalist society, each responding differently to the virtues of the market (Hont and Ignatieff, 1983). Comparative historical analysis continued with Tocqueville and the ‘trinity’ of Weber, Marx and Durkheim in the 19th and early 20th centuries (Hall, 1989, 545–546). In different ways, as each of these theorists grappled with the key issues of the day, they sought to identify the historical patterns that had structured contemporary concerns. The legacies of these works are clear in the variety of perspectives found within HS. There have, nevertheless, been s