Historical Sociology and World History

In recent years, a growing number of international relations scholars have used the idea of uneven and combined development to fashion social theories of “the international.” First proposed by the Russian Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky to describe the trajectory of the Russian Revolution, uneven and combined development as a theoretical framework has been employed to avoid Eurocentrism and highlight cross-society interactions. Anievas (Univ. of Connecticut) and Matin (Sussex Univ., UK) have assembled an impressive array of experts to extend such an idea to historical sociology. Aside from the charge of marginalizing non-European societies, mainstream historical sociology has mostly focused on single nation-states. Uneven and combined development, on the contrary, provides a pluralist perspective on the development of global capitalism over the long term. This edited volume is rich in empirical case studies, ranging from the Ottoman Empire to the Opium War, with no shortage of insights on the different paths of capital accumulation and market integration. While uneven and combined development may not achieve the status of a theoretical paradigm, this insightful book certainly fulfills its goals in bringing extra-European societies into the discussion of world history and in bridging the fields of historical sociology and world history. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Faculty. * CHOICE *
Alexander Anievas and Kamran Matin’s edited volume is a formidable compendium of cutting edge scholarship by leading historical sociologists and world historians, radically rethinking their respective fields far beyond their inherited and still dominant Eurocentric gaze. What they achieve is not just a massive contribution to their disciplinary fields, but far more importantly the recasting of world history in a manner that for the first time invests “the world” with seriously grounded significance. With this volume their central and guiding idea of “uneven and combined development” becomes definitive to any serious generation of scholarship to follow. -- Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
Debates on uneven and combined development within historical sociology have portrayed, for far too long, the “periphery” of non-Europe as a passive recipient of diffusions from a European “core”. This book is a standout success in “deprovincialising” historical sociology to finally address the problems of tunnel vision, diffusionism, and the straightjacket of Eurocentrism. -- Adam David Morton, Professor of Political Economy, University of Sydney
Anievas and Matin have assembled a creative and compelling discussion for an alterrnative to Eurocentric world history and historical sociology. Ranging from the Paleolithic to late capitalism, and incorporating a rich geographical diversity, the contributors offer an important relational and global contribution to the much-needed rebirth of historical sociology. -- Jason W. Moore, Assistant Professor, Fernand Braudel Center, Binghamton University, author of Capitalism in the Web of Life
This exciting book seeks to renew, refresh and critically defend historical sociology in light of a host of challenges to the premises that underlie the classical traditions of social and political thought. The chapters form a wide-ranging conversation that will be edifying to all historians and theorists of international relations. -- Robbie Shilliam, Queen Mary University of London, Reader in International Relations